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THE DENHAM TRACTS. 
 
The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924092530496 
 
THE DENHAM TKACTS. 
 
 A Collection of Folklore by Michael Aislabie Denltam, 
 
 AND 
 
 REPRINTED FROM THE ORIGINAL TRACTS AND PAMPHLETS 
 PRINTED BY MR. DENHA.M BETWEEN 1846 AND 1859. 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 Dh. JAMES HARDY. 
 
 VOL. IT. 
 
 LONDOX : 
 PUBLISHED FOR THE FOLKLORE SOCIETY 
 
 BY DAVID NUTT, 270, STKAND, W.C. 
 1895. 
 
■WESTMINSTER : 
 
 PRINTED BY NICHOLS AND SONS, 
 
 25, PABLIAMENT STREET. 
 
PKEFACE. 
 
 The issue of this volume has been delayed owing to the illness 
 of Dr. Hardy when it was only half through the press. I took 
 it up at this stage, and have thus completed the task of getting 
 together these collections of folk-lore which were made before 
 folk-lore was anything more than a pastime for the curious, or 
 at most an antiquarian pursuit with no definite object in view, 
 and only a probability of any results of value being derived 
 from its preservation and study. I confess my sympathy goes 
 out to these old antiquaries who were content year after year 
 to record small things for the sake of recording. Of course 
 their method of record was not perfect, was not even good ; 
 but then it was a record, and without their work the- 
 modern student would be badly off'. The world is too 
 much in a hurry now to produce any more of this class of 
 antiquaries. The dividing line between the collector and 
 the student who seeks to use collections for scientific pur- 
 poses is not always preserved, and in consequence works are 
 produced which cannot always be commended. The functions 
 of these two classes of folk-lorists are quite distinct and should 
 bu kept distinct. A plain unadulterated collection of material, 
 the result of personal testimony and research, is a thing to pray 
 for. A work which handles a collection such as this in a 
 scientific spirit, such, for instance, as Mr. Frazer's Golden 
 Bough or Mr. Hartland's Perseus, is a thing to discuss and 
 enjoy and improve upon as our knowledge increases. But the 
 
V1U PREFACE. 
 
 two cannot be welded. When it is attempted we get wrong 
 classification to begin with, and hence wrong conclusions. 
 Superstitions and beliefs are made to qualify the facts of 
 modern life instead of being studied each item by itself to see 
 what is the substantive of human life and history with which it 
 is in true agreement. 
 
 The truth is that a superstition now attached to birth, 
 marriage, or death, to the domestic actions of the modern 
 family, to the outdoor actions of the modern agriculturist, or 
 to any other side of modern life, has become so attached by cir- 
 cumstances which have affected its later observance, not its 
 original form. And hence when persons unqualified by any 
 anthropological scholarship attempt to deal with some of the 
 items of folk-lore for a literary purpose they fall into errors which 
 have caused enormous difficulties in the way of true research. 
 
 Mr. Denham was not guilty of anything like this. His 
 collection is haphazard to a degree. He simply jotted down 
 what he heard as he heard it, and he did not seek to classify it. 
 This, to my mind, is a distinct gain. This book represents what 
 folk-lore was when it first began to be collected, and it may be 
 profitably compared with many later collections which from 
 some fancied literary necessity are burdened with a classifica- 
 tion which begins with the routine of modern life and generally 
 winds up with " miscellaneous " beliefs. 
 
 Mr. Denham's work is like Aubrey's, and Aubrey's is the 
 foundation of English folk lore. It is a reflex of what folk-lore 
 actually is, the detritus of a once more or less extensive and more 
 or less systematized belief and ritual, found in patches here and 
 there, perfect in perhaps no one place and not often identical in 
 different places, existing as superstitious belief with some 
 people, practised as a custom or a child's game with others, 
 remembered as a saying or a proverb with others. There is no 
 general law for the preservation of folk-lore; it may have 
 
PREFACE. IX 
 
 become attached to a place, an object, a season, a class of 
 persons, a rule of life, and have been preserved by means of 
 this attachment ; but because every item of folk-lore is not 
 attached to the same agent, wherever that particular item has 
 been preserved, it is so important not to stereotype an accidental 
 association into a permanent one. I am anxious that Mr. 
 Denham's work should be known as the best evidence on this 
 important point. If it had been written at the present day, 
 even if it had been edited under other auspices than that of the 
 Folk-lore Society, it is not too much to say that it would have 
 assumed a different character to that in which it now appears 
 To take an instance, it would no doubt have been deemed 
 necessary to have classified the " left leg stocking " divination 
 (p. 281) amongst superstitions relating to dress, whereas the 
 true determinant of this practice is the "left" (as opposed to 
 the " right ") which belongs to an important class of ancient 
 beliefs which have been discussed by Grimm and other 
 authorities in their bearings upon Indo-European history. It is 
 curious that the Romans believed in the luck of the left, thus 
 standing in opposition to the more general belief in the luck of 
 the right, and the luck of the left belongs to the Roman wall 
 district of northern Britain, whereas the luck of the right and 
 the unluck of the left is found further south, and in the 
 distinctly Teutonic parts of Britain. 
 
 If, then, I claim that the want of order and classification in 
 this book constitutes one of its chief elements of scientific value, 
 it is apparent that the only way to study folk-lore is to 
 treat of each recorded item separately. For this purpose 
 there will be found very interesting features here which 
 are not to be found elsewhere. The names for the different 
 classes of spirits (on pp. 77-78) is very full, and needs 
 some investigation philologically and mythologically, because, 
 although there are names derived from obvious misconcep- 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 tions of the popular mind, there are others which seem 
 to me to contain important indications of early God-names. 
 Apparitions, ghosts, and spirits make up a large element in 
 north English folk-lore, for which the geographical and climatic 
 conditions are no doubt chiefly answerable. The attachment 
 of certain families to the district on the basis of ancient clan 
 customs leads to the preservation of family traditions of great 
 interest, and the descent of the Drummelzier from a river god 
 (p. 42) is noted from Sir Walter Scott. Family apparitions seem 
 to have been taken over by the Society for Psychical Research, 
 and the group found on pp. 183-188 may be referred to with 
 some interest. Well-worship, river-worship, and fire-worship 
 are distinctive features of the beliefs recorded of northern 
 Britain, but in the last of these groups Mr. Denham has 
 missed many important details which have been recorded by 
 later enquirers. Stones and stone circles have also an im- 
 portant place in these collections, but animals are not so well 
 represented as might have been supposed. Whether this is due 
 to deficient record or whether it is a characteristic feature of 
 northern belief might be made a matter for enquiry. 
 
 Mr. Denham was in no sense a literary man, and his peculiar 
 practice of issuing these tracts sometimes without date or other 
 means of identification makes it extremely difficult to ascertain 
 whether all he published on folk-lore has been recovered. There 
 is no complete, collection, I believe, extant The Society of 
 Antiquaries of London has a great many of the originals, 
 but the British Museum library is very deficient. Dr. Hardy, 
 too, has a good collection. It often happened that a tract was 
 issued as a simple leaflet, and that later on this would be included 
 in another tract without any alteration of or allusion to the original 
 publication. This has made it difficult to pick out and arrange 
 the material, and in two instances (pp. 121-124, 132-135- 258- 
 261, 262-5,) the same material has been unfortunately printed 
 
PREFACE. XI 
 
 twice. I did not discover this until it was too late to cancel the 
 pages, and no doubt if Dr. Hardy had been well enough to see the 
 whole volume through the press this inadvertence would not 
 have happened. 
 
 This volume does not contain a reprint of the Proverhs and 
 Popular Sayings published by the Percy Society, but with this 
 exception it is believed that all the scattered tracts on folk- 
 lore aro comprised in the two volumes now issued by the 
 Society. 
 
 The Society is greatly indebted to Dr. Hardy for the work 
 he has done. He prepared the whole volume for the press, and 
 added from his own store of Denham Tracts some that the 
 Society had not been able to obtain. But the trying weather of 
 last winter stopped all his work, and left him unable to pursue 
 what has been the pleasure and delight of a long and busy 
 lifetime. 
 
 G. Lauuence Gomme. 
 
 2/ f , Dorset Square, N. IK 
 May, 1895. 
 
THE DENHAM TRACTS. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 FOLKLORE, Oil MANNERS AND CUSTOMS, OP THE 
 NORTH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 For the want of a recording pen, innumerable are the ancient 
 and interesting local rhymes, customs, legends, and valuable 
 portions of history which have been irremediably lost and 
 gathered up by time into his wallet, as offerings to oblivion. 
 
 Midsummer Cushions. 
 
 This was a custom, used some seventy years ago at many 
 places in the North of England ; but it, like almost every other 
 of the innocent and pleasing customs and amusements of our 
 fore-elders, is fast vanishing away, if it has not altogether done 
 so. The young lads and lasses of the town or village having 
 procured a cushion or, in accordance with local phraseology, a 
 whishion, and covered it with calico, or silk of showy and 
 attractive colour, proceeded to bedeck it with every variety 
 of flower which they could procure out of their parents' and 
 more wealthy neighbours' gardens, displaying them in such a 
 manner so as to give it a most beautiful appearance. All this 
 done, they placed themselves, with their cushion of Flora's 
 choicest gems, in the most public place they conveniently could, 
 VOL. n. b 
 
2 THE DENHAM TRACTS* 
 
 soliciting of every passer-by a trifling present of pence, which, 
 in numerous cases, was liberally and cheerfully bestowed. A 
 set form of words was made use of (in rhyme, I believe) when 
 soliciting those gifts, the precise version of which I have never 
 been able to obtain. 
 
 This custom prevailed from Midsummer Day to Magdalene 
 Day, which latter has long been corrupted to " Maudlin Day." 
 
 The Mell Day, or Harvest Home. 
 
 In the counties of Durham and York, the last day of reaping 
 with each individual farmer, is honoured above all others. This 
 day is known throughout the north by the appellation of " Mell 
 Day." The reapers (or shearers as they are popularly called), 
 on this auspicious day, are entertained with the melodious 
 sounds of a fiddle. An hour or two before the last and lucky 
 cut the village musician is sent for to proceed with all haste to 
 the harvest field, where he is expected to play some of his 
 merriest tunes ; to the sounds of which, at intervals, the 
 shearers, binders, and their kind-hearted master, join in social 
 dance. When the last handful is bound up in the golden sheaf, 
 and the sheaves are all placed upright in lots of ten or twelve 
 each, locally called stooks, the farmer's head man, or some 
 other elderly male person employed during harvest, proceeds 
 with most stentoriaii voice to " Shout the Mell," which is 
 celebrated in the following rhymes : 
 
 Blest be the day that Christ was born, 
 
 We've getten 't mell of Mr. 's corn ; 
 
 Weel bound, and better shorn. 
 
 Hip ! Hip ! Hip ! Huzza ! ! Huzza ! ! 
 
 The labourers on this day are plentifully regaled with as <"ood 
 ale or strong beer as can be procured in the neighbourhood ; to 
 which is often added, by way of stimulus, a pretty liberal 
 
FOLKLORE OF THE NORTH OF ENGLAND. 3 
 
 addition from the rum bottle. This seldom fails to send home 
 some of the fair maids, as well as the ancient dames of the 
 village, chirping merry. Some years ago the masters used to 
 treat the reapers with a supper, called the Mell Supper ; but 
 this custom, with very few exceptions, is now totally laid aside, 
 and in consideration of this deviation from ancient custom, their 
 employers give them a shilling each in addition to the regular 
 wages of that day. This shilling is called the Mell Shilling. 
 When dancing had become general after the supper, these 
 parties used to be attended by Mummers ; that is, men and 
 women disguised in each other's apparel, &c. &c. This is in the 
 dialect of the district termed Cruising, and the individuals them- 
 selves Guisers. In the years 1825 and 1826 I saw the reapers 
 come home from the Mell Field in the evening, dressed in high 
 crowned muslin caps, profusely ornamented with ribbons of 
 various colours, and preceded by music. 
 
 Feasts of Dedication. 
 
 u Wakes, church ales, summerings, tides, rush-bearings, 
 revels, gants,* hoppings, fairs, vigils, ale feasts, or Whitsun ales, 
 are anniversary feasts, great numbers of which are still kept in 
 the counties of Durham and Northumberland in all their primi- 
 tive glory and rude yet hearty hospitality, in commemoration of 
 the dedication of the parish church or parochial chapel to some 
 patron saint. Hopping is derived from the Anglo-Saxon 
 ' hoppan ' to dance or leap. Dances in the country villages 
 of the north of England are termed hops at the present period 
 of time. By an act of Convocation passed in the reign of 
 Henry VIII., the Feast of the Dedication was ordered to be 
 held on the first Sunday in October, and the celebration of the 
 
 * [Gnnt, a village fair or wake. — East (HallhTell). Not in 
 Brockett.] 
 
 b2 
 
THE DENHAM TRACTS. 
 
 Saint's day to be laid aside. In Somersetshire these sports are 
 termed plays. In the west of England rails and rowls. 
 
 In the county of Durham a series of local feasts begin the 
 last Sunday in July, and proceed, I think, in the following 
 order : Neasham, Hurworth, Aldbrough, Stapleton, Blackwell, 
 Cockerton, Haughton-le-Skerne, Harrowgate, Burdon, Sad- 
 berge, Goatham, Brafferton, and Aycliffe. Duck-hunting, 
 racing, drinking, banqueting, and all sorts of secular sports 
 are the order of the day on the Sabbath, and a day or two 
 afterwards. — Longstaffe's Hist. Darlington, p. 242. 
 
 Riding the Stang. 
 
 Once upon a time there resided in the village of G[ainfor]d, 
 in com. Dunelm (the place of the writer's nativity), a man 
 and his wife of the name of Lamb. Now, for the first time in 
 his life (and they had been married some dozen years or more), 
 the old gentleman had been guilty of some venial delinquency, 
 which his good wife considered of so flagrant a nature that her 
 passion could not exhaust itself simply by giving him a " reet 
 good setting down " (i.e. a good scolding), but to work the old 
 lady set herself and gave him a most severe beating, or, as we 
 Northerners term it, a threshing, into the bargain. Some 
 neighbours chancing to pass during the hubbub heard the 
 whole scrimmage between the old man and his better half. 
 Then Fame, with her thousand tongues, bruited the tale abroad, 
 and not without adding that much which made the little into 
 a mickle. A consultation was held at the smith's shop, and it 
 was unanimously agreed, that the stang be ridden for Mrs. 
 Lamb. Well, the appointed night arrived, when, in accordance 
 with " aunciente custome," a person, as proxy for the real 
 delinquent, mounted the stang (a ladder, by-the-bye, for the 
 comfort and convenience of the rider) and called aloud the 
 
FOLKLORE OF THE NORTH OF ENGLAND. 5 
 
 following doggrell rhvmes at the full extent of his voice, the 
 whole length and breadth of the village : — 
 
 With a ran, tan, tan, on an old tin can, 
 And a hey tinkle, how tinkle, hey tinkle tang ; 
 It isn't for your sake, nor my sake, that I ride 't stang, 
 But it is lor the avvde Yowe * that threshest poor Lamb. 
 Hip ! Hip ! Huzza ! ! Huzza ! ! ! 
 
 She bang'd him, she bang'd him, she bang'd him, indeed ; 
 She bang'd him reet weel afore he stood need ; 
 She nowther take stick, staan, staff, nor stower, 
 But she up with her neif and she knock'd him ower, and ower, 
 and ower, and ower. 
 
 Hip ! Hip ! Huzza ! ! Huzza ! ! ! 
 
 She next tuke up an awde three-footed stule, 
 And she called him a bizon, and an awde drunken fule ; 
 And then hit him sae hard, and cut him sae deep, 
 That the blude ran down his legs and into his shoes, 
 Like the blude of a new stuck sheep. 
 
 Hip ! Hip ! Huzza ! ! Huzza ! ! ! 
 
 Now if ivver I hears tell, that she again rebels, 
 Or that he complains of us ridin 't stang, 
 
 Then we'll all come again, 
 
 And we'll ride't stang again, 
 With a ran tan, ran tan, tang, 
 And a hey tinkle, how tinkle, hey tinkle, tang. 
 
 Hip ! Hip I Huzza ! ! Huzza ! ! Huzza ! ! ! 
 
 [In the pit villages near Gateshead Fell there is another 
 
 * Observe the pun upon the name of Lamb, to wit, " Yowe," i.e. 
 a female sheep which has had young. From the above incident arose 
 the saying, " Aye, the old Yowe is the better Tupe " ; and, though it 
 is now more than fifty years ago, it is still repeated when the occasion 
 serves by the ancients of the village. 
 
6 THE DENHAM TRACTS. 
 
 variety of " Bidin' the Stang," not "meant as a mark of 
 disgrace, as it is in many others ; on the contrary, it is rather 
 a mark of honour." The morning after a young man is married, 
 he is mounted upon a " board or pole, and carried to the public 
 house upon the shoulders of two men, where he is expected to 
 give the pit's crew a ' blaw out.' The last married man is 
 always chosen mayor, and undergoes the same operation. Both 
 these events produce 'gaudy days.' " 
 
 They myed me ride the stang as suin 
 As aw show'd fyace at wavk agyen. 
 The upshot was a gaudy-day, 
 A grand blaw-out wi' Grundy's yell.' 
 
 Wilson's Pitman's Pay, p. 51. — J. H.] 
 
 [Gaudy Day — Cuckoo Mornin' &c. 
 
 " In the pit villages near Gateshead Fell, there are certain 
 times of the year when the young men and lads refuse to work, 
 and insist on a ' gaudy day ;' for instance, the first morning 
 they hear the cuckoo, and when the turnips and peas are at 
 maturity. They call these periods, ' a cuckoo mornin',' ' a 
 tormit [turnip] mornin',' and ' a pea mornin'.' At such times 
 they frequently adjourn to a neighbouring publichouse, where 
 they enjoy themselves during a great part of the day. 
 
 Charles Lamb, in his Recollections of Christ's Hospital, when 
 adverting to the festivities of Christmas, says ' the richest of us 
 would then club our stock to have a gaudy day.' " — Wilson's 
 Pitman's Pay, pp. 46, 47, note. — J. H.] 
 
 Barring Out. 
 
 This was a practice once very common in schools of a superior 
 class throughout the whole of England, but most general in the 
 north. It was generally practised about the period of St. 
 
FOLKLORE OF THE NORTH OF ENGLAND. 7 
 
 Nicholas's Day (6th December), who, it may be proper to 
 remark, was the chosen patron of schoolboys. On this day was 
 formerly celebrated the semi-impious Roman Catholic farce of 
 the Boy Bishop, one of whom, in the year 1229, was permitted 
 to say vespers before King Edward I, at the Chapel of Heton, 
 near Newcastle on Tyne ; and the king was so much pleased 
 with his youthful chaplain and choral followers that he made 
 them a considerable present. The Eton Mnntem is evidently a 
 substitution for the (ir)religious ceremony of one partaking of a 
 military character. Some seventy or eighty years ago, vestiges 
 of these medieval, at least, if not primeval, customs were retained 
 in several of the grammar schools of the whole of the north of 
 England. Brand says that he heard the custom was retained 
 in the Dean and Chapter's schools, in the city of Durham, and 
 that the same practice prevailed in the Kepicr School, of 
 Houghton-le-Spring, in the county of Durham. It was also 
 practised at the grammar schools of Bowes, in the county of 
 York ; and at those of Scotby, Wetheral, and Warwick, in 
 Cumberland ; and Kirkby Stephen, in Westmoreland. A writer 
 in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1791, vol. lxi., p. 1170, men- 
 tioning some local customs of Westmoreland and Cumberland, 
 says : — 
 
 " In September or October, the master is locked out of the 
 school by the scholars, who, previously to his admittance, give 
 an account of the different holidays for the ensuing year, which 
 he promises to observe, and signs his name to the orders, as 
 they are called, with two bondsmen. The return of these 
 signed orders is the signal of capitulation ; the doors are 
 immediately opened ; beef, beer, and wine, deck the festive 
 board, and the day is spent in mirth." 
 
 In the statutes of Witton School, near North wich, in Cheshire, 
 founded a.d. 1558, the observance of this practice by the 
 scholars is specially directed. See Carlisle, " Description of 
 
8 THE DENHAM TRACTS. 
 
 Endowed Grammar Schools," vol. i. p. 133. It prevailed also 
 at Rothbury in Northumberland, ibid. vol. ii. p. 259. Hutchin- 
 son, in his History of Cumberland, vol. ii. p. 322, says this 
 custom was used by the scholars of the free school of Brom- 
 field or Brumfield, in that county, about the beginning of 
 Lent, or in the more expressive phraseology of the county, at 
 Fasten's Even. 
 
 An ancient schoolmaster repeated to the writer the follow- 
 ing stanza of a Barring-out Rhyme, used at a school in com. 
 Ebor nearly sixty years ago. 
 
 "Orders! Master! Orders! 
 Orders we do crave ; 
 And if you wont grant us orders, 
 Orders we will have. 
 Although we are but little boys, 
 We are both stiff and stout ; 
 And if you won't grant us orders, 
 We'll keep you longer out." 
 
 Although the above may form only one half or may be but 
 one-third or fourth of the grand total of the poetical address 
 issued on these privileged days — for I have cause to believe 
 that the whole of the holidays claimed for the ensuing twelve 
 months were strung up together in equally uncopth verses — 
 I still have thought it worth " Chronicling in a Boke," hoping 
 that either myself, or some kind and charitable reader, may 
 be able to add the remanet at a later period of time. 
 
 The Wassail or Loving Cup. 
 
 A relic of this primitive and good old Christmas custom is 
 still retained to a much greater extent than hitherto I was 
 aware of, in the counties of Cumberland and Westmoreland • 
 and here, too, the equally good old-fashioned practice of little 
 
FOLKLORE OF THE NORTH OF ENGLAND. 9 
 
 family parties at this period of the year is also continued. The 
 Wassail or Loving Cup, is introduced long ere the visitors 
 separate, the contents of which are composed of a liberal 
 quantum of good old Jamaica rum, hot water, sugar, and lemon 
 prepared in a large china basin, or small punch bowl. This 
 is first partaken of by the master and dame, drinking to the 
 health of each individual of the assembled party ; it is then 
 handed round to each, who, also, taking the bowl in both 
 hands, drinks to the health and happiness of the whole assem- 
 bly. By the time the loving cup has passed through the 
 hands of all present, the mirth-inspiring beverage has roused 
 the spirits of one and all to trip it in the mazy dance. 
 
 Fig-Sue. Good Friday. 
 
 The customary dish of Fig Sue is still prepared, and alone 
 partaken of for dinner on this day, by many families through- 
 out the whole of the North of England. The dish is a com- 
 position of figs, ale, white bread, sugar, and nutmeg. I 
 never tasted the mess, but those who have, tell me that it is 
 most excellent. 
 
 Fairings. 
 
 The children in many districts in the North of England thus 
 address any male person, whom they see returning from fair 
 or market : — 
 
 " Cowper, Cowper, a nag or a knowt, 
 If you please will ye give me a fairing ? " 
 
 Charm for the Toothache. 
 
 The following really curious traditional rhyme I took down 
 from the narration of a gentleman still living, and caused the 
 same to be given in the Literary Gazette, and Mr. Halliwell's 
 
J THE DENHAM TRACTS. 
 
 really valuable and interesting little book, Popular Rhymes and 
 Nursery Tales of England. London, 1849. 
 
 Peter was sitting on a marble stone, 
 
 And Jesus passed by ; 
 Peter said, " My Lord ! My God ! 
 
 How my tooth doth ache ! " 
 Jesus said, " Peter art whole ! 
 
 And whoever keeps these words for my sake, 
 Shall never have the toothache ! " — Amen. 
 
 Mr. Halliwell records in his book the following various 
 version of the above rhymes, as used in one of the Yorkshire 
 dales ; and in conclusion, says that he has " been informed on 
 credible authority, that the trade of selling efficacies of this kind 
 is far from obsolete in the remote rural districts " : 
 
 "As Sant Petter sat at the Geats of Jerusalem our Blessed 
 Lord and Sevour Jesus Crist pased by and sead, What Eleth 
 thee hee sead Lord My Teeth Ecketh he sead arise and folow 
 Mee and thy Teeth shall Never Eake Eney More, fiat X 
 fiat X fiat X-" [The Virgin Mary is the sufferer in a similar 
 charm for toothache in the Physicians of Myddvai, p. 453.] 
 Another charm is given in Aubrey's Miscellanies, p. 141. 
 
 A Saturday's Moon. 
 
 A Saturday's change, and a Sunday's prime, 
 Was nivver a good mune in nea man's time. 
 
 Dr. Forster, of Bruges, well known as a meteorologist, 
 declares that by the journal kept by his grandfather, father, 
 self, ever since 1767, to the present time, whenever the new 
 moon has fallen on a Saturday, the following twenty days have 
 been wet and windy, in nineteen cases out of twenty. 
 
folklore of the north of england. 11 
 
 Charm Prayers. 
 
 The following charm prayer is used at this day in Westmore- 
 land and is taught by mothers as well as nurses to young 
 children, and is repeated by them on retiring to rest: 
 
 Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, 
 
 God bless this bed that I lie on ; 
 
 If anything appear to me, 
 
 Sweet Christ arise and comfort me. 
 
 Four corners to this bed, 
 
 Four angels round my head,* 
 
 One to pray, one to wake, 
 
 Two to guard mo till day -break. 
 
 And blessed guardian-angels keep 
 
 Me safe from dangers while I sleep. 
 
 I lay me down upon my side. 
 
 I pray the Lord to be my guide ; 
 
 And if I die before 1 wake, 
 
 I pray the Lord my soul to take. Amen. 
 
 The following prayer is, I understand, used in the county of 
 Norfolk : 
 
 I lay me down to rest me, 
 I pray to God to bless me ; 
 And if I sleep and never wake, 
 I pray the Lord my soul to take, 
 This night for evermore. Amen. 
 
 Two articles on ancient Paternosters have already appeared 
 in the Folk-Lore Record, vols, i and ii, the first by W. J. 
 Thorns, Esq., the second by Miss Evelyn Carrington ; of these 
 
 * Varia. — Six angels round me spread, 
 Two to sing, and two to pray, 
 And two to carry my soul away. 
 
12 THE DENHAM TKACTS. 
 
 Mr. Denham's examples present other varieties. In Sinclair's 
 Satan's Invisible World Discovered, ed. 1815, thsre are some 
 out-of-the-way Scotch specimens, which may be placed along- 
 side of these last. Agnes Simpson, condemned for witchcraft 
 in the time of James VI. of Scotland, was a sort of white witch. 
 She taught ignorant people, two prayers, " The Black and 
 White Pater Noster in Metre, in set forms, to be used morning 
 and evening, and at other times when occasion offereth." 
 
 White Pater Noster. 
 
 " God was my foster, 
 He fostered me 
 Under the book of palm tree 
 Saint Michael was my dame. 
 He was born at Bethlehem, 
 He was made of flesh and blood. 
 God send me my right food ; 
 My right food, and dyne too, 
 That I may to yon kirk go, 
 To read upon yon sweet book, 
 Which the mighty God of heaven shook. 
 Open, open, heaven's yaits; 
 Steik, steik, hell's yaits. 
 All saints be the better, 
 That hear the White Prayer, Pater Noster." 
 
 The Black Pater Noster runs thus : 
 
 " Four neuks in this house for haly angels, 
 A post in the midst, that's Christ Jesus,' 
 Lucas, Marcus, Matthew, Joannes, 
 God be into this house, and all that belans? us." * 
 
 pp. 19, 20. 
 
FOLKLORE OF THE NORTH OF ENGLAND. 13 
 
 "At night, in the time of Popery, when folks went to bed they 
 believed the repetition of the following prayer was effectual to 
 preserve them from danger, and the house too. 
 
 " Who sains the house the night ? 
 They that sains it ilka night. 
 Saint Bryde and her brat, 
 Saint Colme and his hat, 
 Saint Michael and his spear, 
 Keep this house from the weir ; 
 From running thief ; 
 And burning thief ; 
 And from a' ill Rea, 
 That be the gate can gae ; 
 And from an ill wight, 
 That be the gate can light. 
 Nine reeds about the house ; 
 Keep it all the night. 
 What is that what I see, 
 So red, so bright, beyond the sea ? 
 'Tis he was pierced through the hands, 
 Through the feet, through the throat, 
 Through the tongue ; 
 Through the liver, through the lung. 
 Well is them that well may 
 Fast on Good-Friday."* 
 
 "A country man in East Lothian used this grace always before 
 and after meat. 
 
 Lord be blessed for all his gifts, 
 Defy the devil and all his shifts ; 
 God sond me mair siller. — Amen." f 
 
 148. f P- 149. 
 
14 the denham tkacts. 
 
 Bhymes on Mountains in the Noete op England which indicate 
 the Weather. 
 
 1. When Eoseberry Topping wears a cap, 
 Let Cleayeland then beware of a rap. 
 
 2. When Eoseberrye Toppingc wears a cappe, 
 Let Cleveland then beware a clappe. — Camden. 
 
 3. When Eston-Knab puts on a cloake, 
 
 And Eoseberrye a cappe, 
 Then all the folks on Cleaveland's clay, 
 Ken there will be a clappe. 
 
 4. When Eoseberry Topping wears a hat, 
 Morden Cam will suffer for that. 
 
 Roseberry Topping is the name of a lofty conical- shaped hill 
 in the North Riding of the county of York. The rap and clappe 
 alluded to in the rhymes is, in plain language, a thunder storm. 
 Camden observes, that when the top of this hill " begins to be 
 darkened with clouds, rain generally follows " ; hence the 
 ancient distich. Morden Carrs is in the county of Durham, 
 near Sedgfield. 
 
 If Eiving-pike do wear a hood, 
 
 Be sure that day will ne'er be good. — Lancashire. 
 
 When Gelt puts on his night-cap 'tis sure to rain. 
 
 — Cumberland. 
 When Skiddaw hath a cap, 
 Scruffell wots full well of that. 
 
 — Cumberland, and Annandale in Scotland. 
 
 When Hood-hill has on his cap, 
 
 Hamilton's sure to come down with a clap. — Yorkshire. 
 
 When Knipe-scar gets a hood, 
 
 Sackworth may expect a flood.— Westmoreland. 
 
FOLKLORE OF THE NORTH OF ENGLAND. 15 
 
 Guy Fawkes ; or, Fifth of November Ehymes. 
 
 A doggrel hominy roared (not sung) at the full extent of the 
 voices of two or three dozen lads at Kirkby Stephen in West- 
 moreland, on the eve of the anniversary of the Gunpowder Plot, 
 when making progresses in order to collect money for the pur- 
 chase of gunpowder and tar-barrels. I took it down from the 
 oral recitation of a lad who had, on many occasions, acted his 
 part therein, like a true stentor : 
 
 Hollo boys, hollo boys, 
 
 Let the bells ring ! 
 Hollo boys, hollo boys, 
 
 God save the King ! 
 Pray to remember 
 The fifth of November, 
 
 Gunpowder, treason, and plot, 
 When the King and his train, 
 Had nearly been slain, 
 
 Therefore it shall not be forgot. 
 
 Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkee, 
 
 And his companions, 
 
 Strove to blow all England up ; 
 
 But God's mercy did prevent, 
 
 And saved our King and his parliament. 
 
 Happy was the man, 
 
 And happy was the day, 
 That God caught Guy, 
 
 Going to his play, 
 With a dark lanthorn, 
 And a brimstone match, 
 Ready for the prime to touch. 
 
16 THE DENHAM TRACTS. 
 
 As I was going through the dark entry, 
 
 I spied the devil, 
 
 Stand back ! Stand back ! 
 Queen Mary's daughter, 
 Put your hand in your pocket, 
 And give us some money 
 To kindle our bon-fire ! 
 
 Huzza ! Huzza ! Huzza ! 
 
 I can give no explanation of this, further than that I take it to 
 be intended as a compliment to the mistress of the mansion : 
 " Queen Mary's daughter " — I cannot tell what it means ! I 
 put the question as to its meaning to the reciter when I com- 
 mitted it to paper, but he could throw no light on it. His 
 answer was, "Aw larnt it sae, and aw knaw na mair." 
 
 Singular Will. 
 
 The following singular will was proved at York in the year 
 of our Lord 1771 : — 
 
 This is my last will, 
 I insist on it still, 
 So sneer on and welcome, 
 And e'en laugh your fill : 
 I, William Hickington, 
 Poet of Pocklington, 
 Do give and bequeath, 
 As free as I breathe, 
 To thee, Mary Jarem, 
 The queen of my harem, 
 My cash and my cattle, 
 With every chattel, 
 To have and to hold, 
 Come heat or come cold, 
 Sans hindrance or strife, 
 Tho' thou'rt not my wife. 
 
FOLKLORE OF THE NORTH OF ENGLAND 17 
 
 As witness my hand 
 Just here as I stand, 
 This twelfth day of July, 
 In the year seventy. 
 
 William Hickington. 
 
 Schoolboy Bhymes. 
 A rhyme for the twenty-fifth Sunday after Trinity : 
 
 Stir up, we beseech thee, 
 
 The puddings in the pot ; 
 And when we get home, 
 
 We'll eat them all hot. 
 
 The following, as also the still more popular saying "All my 
 eye and Betty Martin," had its origin during the period in 
 which the Church of Rome was in its " downward progress " in 
 the British Isles. It formed one of the many Protestant flings 
 at Popery, and though not the most dignified, was perhaps not 
 the least effectual among the many instruments of the Reforma- 
 tion. It, too, like Betty Martin, is a parody on what the 
 members of the Romish Church held sacred : — 
 
 Hail Mary ! full of grace, 
 I'opu-lariy, curtail face ; 
 Egg shells, goose quills, 
 Knobsticks, sparrow bills. 
 
 Shrove-Tide Rhyme. 
 
 Shrove Sunday, 
 
 Collop Monday, Pancake Tuesday, 
 Ash Wednesday, Bloody Thursday, 
 Friday's lang, but will be dune, 
 Then hey for Setterday efternune. 
 
 VOL. II. 
 
 
18 THE DENHAM TRACTS. 
 
 Good Friday Rhyme. 
 
 One a penny buns, two a penny buns, 
 
 One a penny, two a penny, hot X buns, 
 
 Butter them and sugar them, and put them in your minis. 
 
 Rhymes on Bathing. 
 
 He who bathes in May, 
 Will soon be laid in clay ; 
 He who bathes in June, 
 Will sing a merry tune' ; 
 He who bathes in July, 
 Will dance like a fly. 
 
 Book Rhymes. 
 In the library of the Dean and Chapter of Durham is an 
 ancient Missale Romanorum, once the property of the church of 
 Hutton Kudby, Yorkshire, as we learn from the following 
 quaint rhymes contained in the bowke itself : — 
 
 Whoso owne me dothe loke, 
 
 I am ye Chourche of Rudby's bowke ; 
 
 Whoso dothe saye ye contrary, 
 
 I reporte me to awll ye parysshyngby. 
 
 This book was given by Samuel Davidson, Esq., to the Rev. 
 George Davenport, Rector of Houghton-le- Spring, and was by 
 him, in 1662, given to the library left by Bishop Cosin to the 
 clergy of the Diocese of Durham. 
 
 Rhyme on Bulmeu Stone, Daklington. 
 
 In Darnton towne ther is a stane, 
 
 And most strange is yt to tell, 
 That yt turnes nine times round aboute 
 
 When yt hears ye clock strike twell. 
 
 This truly wonderful revolving stone, though ny-the-by it is 
 
FOLKLORE OF THE NORTH OF ENGLAND. 19 
 
 not singular in this property, stands in the front of some low 
 cottages constituting Northgate House, in the street bearing the 
 same name (See Longstaffe's Hist. Darlington, p. 164). It is a 
 water-worn boulder-stone of Shap (Westmorland) granite. 
 
 Shrove Tuesday Rhymes. 
 
 When the pancake bell begins to knell, 
 The frying-pan begins to smell. 
 
 Pancakes were anciently an universal dish on this festival ; 
 I myself have often partaken of them. Shrove Tuesday in the 
 North of England is generally called Pancake Tuesday. A dish 
 of fritters is usual in France on this day and the following 
 Thursday. See Hone's Year Book, 146, 7, 8, 9. In Lanca- 
 shire hot pancakes arc to this day introduced at the tea table on 
 Shrove Tuesday. 
 
 "Fit as a pancake for Shrove Tuesday," is a very old popular 
 saying. 
 
 The Calgaiith Skull. 
 
 There is an extraordinary skull preserved with great care at 
 Calgarth Park, near Applethwaite in Westmoreland, of which 
 tradition says, that if brayed to powder at night it is regularly 
 found in its perfect state placed on the hall table next morning. 
 I understand there is a very curious legend in connection with 
 this skull, which I have in vain endeavoured to obtain. 
 
 Magpie Rhymes. 
 
 According to the number of magpies you sec at one and the 
 same time when going on a journey, etc. &c. you may calculate 
 your good or ill luck, as follows : — 
 
 ( >ne for sorrow, 
 Two for luck (vavia mirth) ; 
 C 2 
 
20 THE DENHAM TRACTS. 
 
 Three for a wedding, 
 
 Four for death (yaria a birth) ; 
 
 Five for silver (yaria rich) ; 
 
 Six for gold (varia poor) ; 
 
 Seven for a secret 
 
 Not to be told ; 
 
 Eight for heaven, 
 
 Nine for h , 
 
 And ten for the deevil's awn sell ! 
 
 Sir Humphrey Davy in his Salmonida has a note on those 
 verses. The following are a few of the local names for tins 
 Devil's bird : nanpie, chatter-pie, maggy ; in Kent it is called 
 a haggister ; in Lancashire, a pyanot ; Cotgrave in his Dic- 
 tionary gives " magatapie." In Northumberland it is called 
 pyanot, and I have somewhere seen it spelt maggot-pie. At 
 the sight of one magpie, the good folks in Westmoreland make 
 use of the following charm to avert the ill omen : 
 
 Magpie, magpie, chatter and flee, 
 Turn up thy tail and good luck fall me. 
 
 But I have been credibly told that the act of making the sign 
 of the cross on the ground is a much more effectual charm ! 
 
 A North Cocntrie Farmer's Soliloquy on the Prospects of 
 his Hay Harvest. 
 
 Wilt thou be hay ? 
 
 Nay ! 
 
 Wilt thou be fother (fodder) ? 
 
 I'll be nowther ! 
 
 Wilt thou be muck ? 
 
 That's my luck ! 
 
 Animal Sacrifice at Christian- Burials (?). 
 In the month of August, 1849, in excavating the earth within 
 
FOLKLORE OF THE NORTH OF ENGLAND. 21 
 
 Staindrop Collegiate Church in order to build the flues for 
 warming the sacred edifice, the skeleton of a human body was 
 exhumed, which was generally supposed to be one of the Lordly 
 Nevilles of Eaby Castle in the Bishopric, at whose feet were 
 found the bones of a dog of the greyhound breed. It would be 
 worth the trouble of inquiry could we ascertain the fact whether 
 this primitive custom of slaying and interring a favourite animal 
 with the body of its owner was occasionally retained in the 
 Christian Church down to the period of the thirteenth or 
 fourteenth centuries. We read of one of " The Noble Nevilles," 
 whose war-horse, armed in battle array, preceded the body of 
 its master at his interment in Durham Priory Church. The 
 horse, however, in this case was not slain, but given to the said 
 church as a portion of its owner's mortuary payment. — See 
 Journal of Archceological Institute, vol. vi. p. 436. 
 
 Weather Proverbs. 
 
 Easterly winds and rain, 
 Bring cockles here from Spain. 
 
 As the season in which cockles are in the greatest supply is 
 generally the most stormy in the year, the sailors' wives at the 
 seaport towns in Durham and Northumberland consider the cry of 
 the cocklo-man as the harbinger of bad weather ; and the sailor, 
 
 The following pages (21-80) are from another tract entitled 
 " Folklore ; or Manners, Customs, "Weather Proverbs, Popular 
 Charms, Juvenile Ilhymcs, Ballads, &c. &c. in the north of 
 England." 
 
22 THE DENHAM TRACTS. 
 
 when he hears the cry of " cockles alive " on a dark, wintry 
 night, concludes that a storm is at hand, and breathes a prayer 
 backwards for the soul of bad- weather Greordy ! 
 
 [Chatto's Rambles in Northumberland and on the Scottish 
 Border, p. 207.] 
 
 Rain Rhymes. 
 
 There are several infantile rhymes used as charms for or 
 against rain, viz. : — 
 
 1. Rain, rain, go away, 
 Come again another day. 
 
 2. Rain, rain, gang to Spain, 
 And never come here again. 
 
 3. Rain, rain, pour down, 
 
 And come na' mair to our towne. 
 
 4. Rain, rain, gang away, 
 
 And come again on Midsummer day. 
 
 5. Rain, rain, go away, 
 
 Come again to-morrow day ; 
 When I brew and when I bake, 
 I'll give you a little Rake. 
 
 C. Rain, rain, go to Spain, 
 Fair weather come again. 
 
 7. Rain, rain, go away, 
 
 And come again on Saturday. 
 
 8. Rain, rain, faster, 
 Bull's in the pasture, 
 
 Cow's in the meadow (varia clover), 
 Sheep's in the corn. 
 
FOLKLORE OF THE NORTH OF ENGLAND. 2'i 
 
 Khymes on the Winds, &c. 
 
 When 't wind's in 't east, 
 Cauld and snaw comes 't neist ; 
 When 't wind's in 't west, 
 It suits 't farmer best ; 
 When 't wind's in 't north, 
 Wc ha' to sup het scalding broth ; 
 When 't wind's in 't south, 
 It's muck up to 't mouth, 
 
 A dry August and warm 
 Doth the harvest no harm ; 
 But a rainy August, 
 Makes a hard-bread crust. 
 
 At St. Barthol'mew, 
 
 Then comes cold dew. (24 August.) 
 
 Vulgar Errors. 
 
 1. It is an article in the vulgar creed that if a female appeal's 
 abroad, and receives either insults or blows from any of her 
 neighbours, previous to the ceremony of churching, after giving 
 birth to a child, she has no remedy at law. Neither must a 
 mother enter the house of either friend, relative, or neighbour, 
 till she has been churched. If she is so uncanny, it betokens ill 
 luck to the parties so visited. 
 
 2. The popular belief of the earth no more growing grass 
 where a foul and bloody murder has been committed is very 
 common, and singularly supported by the Field of the Forty 
 Footsteps, near London, where two brothers fought a duel, and 
 took each other's life, about a love affair. See Southpy's 
 Common Place Book, second series, p. 21 ; Miss Porter's novel, 
 
24 THE DENHAM TRACTS. 
 
 Forty Footsteps. There is also a dramatic piece which bears 
 this name. This spot of ground was built upon about tlie year 
 1800. The exact spot whereon tradition says " poor old Willy 
 Eobinson " was murdered on Holwick Fell, in Teesdale, 1794, 
 is positively asserted by a living eye witness to have remained a 
 barren waste ever since. 
 
 3. If the finger or toe nails of an infant are cut previous to 
 its attaining the age of twelve months, it will prove a thief in 
 mature age. Mothers and nurses beware ; and mind you con- 
 tinue the good old fashioned custom of " nibbling." 
 
 4. I once saw an aged matron turn her apron to the new 
 moon to ensure good luck for the ensuing month. 
 
 5. There is a tradition that Judas Iscariot had a head of black 
 hair and a red beard ; this belief may have given rise to the 
 proverb, " He is false by nature that hath a black head and a 
 red beard." 
 
 6. Never allow any one to take a light out of your house on 
 New Year's Day ; a death in the household before the expira- 
 tion of the year is sure to occur if it be allowed. Never throw 
 any ashes, dirty water, or anything, however worthless, out of 
 your house on this day ; to do so betokens ill luck ; but you 
 may bring in as much honestly gotten goods as your means 
 allow, and a blessing will attend their spending. If a female is 
 your first visitant, and be permitted to enter your house on the 
 morning of New Year's Day, it portendeth ill luck for the 
 whole year. 
 
 7. The forefinger of the right hand is considered by the 
 common people as venomous, and consequently is never used in 
 applying anything to a wound or sore. 
 
 8. If a child tooths first in its upper jaw it is considered 
 ominous of its dying in its infancy. 
 
 9. Good Friday and Easter Sunday are both considered as 
 lucky days on which to cast the caps of young children. 
 
FOLKLOKE OF THE NORTH OF ENGLAND. 25 
 
 Tdddening Infants. 
 
 The ancient offering of an egg, a handful of salt, and a bunch 
 of matches, to a young child on its first visit to the house of a 
 neighbour is still very prevalent in many parts of the North of 
 England at the present period. In the neighbourhood of Leeds 
 the ceremony is called " puddening," and the child is said to be 
 "puddened." There is no doubt but that these three offer- 
 ings are typical of the resurrection of the dead, the immor- 
 tality of the soul, and of the lake that burnetii, &c.— See 
 Brockett's Glossary of Nor lit Country Words, vol. i. p. 90, art. 
 " Child's First Visit." 
 
 Christmas Observances. 
 
 To send a " Vessle-cup Singer " away from your doors unre- 
 quited (at least the first that comes) is to forfeit the good luck 
 of all the approaching year. Every family that can possibly 
 afford it at least have a Yule cheese and Yule cake provided 
 against Christmas eve, and it is considered very unlucky to cut 
 either of them before that festival of all festivals. A tall mould 
 candle, called a Yule candle, is lighted in the evening and set 
 upon the table, these candles are presented by the chandlers 
 and grocers to their customers. The Yule Log is either bought 
 of the carpenter's apprentice or found in some neighbour's field. 
 It would be unlucky to light either the log or candle till the proper 
 period; so also it is considered unlucky to stir the fire or move 
 the candlestick during the supper, neither must the candle be 
 snuffed, nor any one stir from the table till supper is ended. In 
 these suppers it is considered unlucky to have an odd number 
 at table, especially so if thirteen. This latter piece of supersti- 
 
26 THE DENHAM TRACTS. 
 
 tion is evidently taken from the last supper partaken of by our 
 blessed Saviour and his twelve apostles. A fragment of the log 
 is occasionally saved and put under a bed to remain till next 
 Christmas, it secures the house from fire, and a small piece of it 
 thrown into a fire (occurring at the house of a neighbour) will 
 quell the raging element. A piece of the candle should be kept 
 to ensure good luck. No person, except boys, must presume to 
 go out of doors till the threshold has been consecrated by the 
 footsteps of a male. The entrance of a woman on the morning 
 of this day, as well as on that of the .New Tear, is considered as 
 the height of ill-luck. St. Stephen's day in the north is devoted 
 pretty generally to hunting and shooting, the game laws being 
 considered as not in force on that day. 
 
 All Souls' Day. 
 
 A few thrifty, elderly housewives still practice the old custom 
 of keeping a soul mass-cake (2nd November) for good luck. 
 The Rev. George Young, in his History of Wliiiby (Yorkshire), 
 says : " A lady in Whitby has a soul mass-loaf nearly a hun- 
 dred years old." 
 
 MONTFERRAND, NEAR BeVEKLEY. 
 
 The fairest lady in this land, 
 Was drown'd at Mont Ferrand. 
 
 This dark saying of antiquity was quoted by one of the 
 members of tho Archaeological Institute, at their meetino- 
 holden at York, in July, 1846. At Montferant, or Montferand 
 are the foundations of an ancient castle. Of the origin of the 
 rhyme I am totally ignorant ; mayhap some " honest Yorkshire" 
 
FOLKLORE OF THE NOKTH OF ENGLAND. 27 
 
 fellow traveller in the same mazy paths of antiquity can throw- 
 some light upon it. 
 
 A Nuesery Song. 
 
 The following beautiful little nursery song, which I took 
 down from the recitation of a female relative, now no more, is 
 unquestionably the gem of baby literature. It was communi- 
 cated by me to J. 0. Halliwell, Esq., F.R.S., and by him given 
 in the fourth edition of the Nursery Rhymes of England, and 
 again in his Popular Rhymes and Nursery Tales, 1849, p. 163, 
 in both cases without acknowledgment : — 
 
 The Babes in the Wood. 
 
 My dear do you know, 
 How a long time ago, 
 
 Two poor little children 
 Whose names I don't know, 
 Were stolen away, 
 On a fine summer's day, 
 
 And left in a wood, 
 As I've heard people say. 
 
 And when it was night, 
 So sad was their plight ; 
 
 The sun it went down, 
 And the moon gave no light ! 
 And they sobbed and they sigh'd, 
 And they bitterly cried ; 
 
 And, poor little things, 
 They laid down and died ! 
 
 And when they were dead, 
 The robin so red 
 
 Brought strawberry leaves, 
 And over them spread ; 
 
28 THE DENHAM TEACTS. 
 
 And all the day long 
 He sang them this song — 
 Poor babes in the wood, 
 Poor babes in the wood ! 
 
 And don't you remember 
 The babes in the wood ? 
 
 The superstitious belief that the Eobin performs the office of 
 covering 1 the dead bodies of the human species with leaves, 
 &c, is noticed by Shakespeare, Drayton, and Webster. In 
 the ballad of The Soldier's Repentance, the robin is invoked 
 by the dying soldier to bury him when dead. Again, in the 
 West Country DamoseVs Complaint, " mourning birds with 
 leafy boughs " are said to have given a burial to her and her 
 youthful lover. 
 
 Ceetaine Dyshes for oeetaine Tymes. 
 
 A turkey and mince-pie at Christmas ; a gammon of bacon on 
 Easter Day; a goose on Michaelmas Day; oysters on St. 
 James's Day ; a roast pig on St. Bartlemy's Day ; a fat hen at 
 Shrovetide ; ham or bacon collops on Shrove Monday ; pancakes 
 on Shrove Tuesday ; a male pullet and bacon on Fastens Day ; 
 hot-cross buns on Good Friday ; bull beef at Candlemas ; 
 pullets are in season during the whole of January, hence the 
 proverb : — 
 
 If you but knew how good it were 
 To eat a pullet in Janivere, 
 If you had but twenty in your flock, 
 You'd leave but one to go with the cock. 
 
 Eggs on the Saturday before Shrove Sunday ; a soul cake on 
 All Souls' Day ; salmon and all kinds of fish in Lent, &c. &e. 
 
 l j 
 
FOLKLOKE OF THE NORTH OF ENGLAND. 29 
 
 The Giant Cob. 
 
 In the museum at Keswick is preserved an immensely large 
 bone, said to be a rib of the Northumbrian giant Cor. A bone 
 of Giant Wade's cow is, or was, shown at Mul grave Castle, 
 Yorks. [The brother giants Cor, Ben, and Con are celebrated 
 in Dr. John Carr's Ode to the Derwent. Bichardson's Table 
 Book, Sfc, Leg. Div. i., p. 285. They resided at Corbridge 
 in Northumberland, and Conset and Benfieldside in Durham.] 
 
 Markets. 
 
 Brough in Westmorland, and Reeth in the North Biding of 
 Yorkshire sire two instances of towns enjoying the privilege of 
 a market, but not having a church therein. St. David's, in 
 Wales, is a city without a market. 
 
 Vuloae Errors. 
 
 1 . A long black hair from the mane or tail of a horse thrown 
 into a running stream instantly becomes a living eel. When a 
 school boy I perfectly recollect trying this experiment in the 
 river Greata. 
 
 2. If a fruit tree is topped with a saw it will die, and not 
 spring afresh as intended. 
 
 3. It was quite common when I was a lad, some forty years 
 ago, to hear one's neighbour observe during a hurricane of 
 wind, " There's been somebody at 't wise man this morning, 
 and he's raised t' wind," and the saying is, even still, occa- 
 sionally heard. 
 
 4. I also recollect, on occasion of the death of a certain 
 very wicked female neighbour of mine, now many years ago, 
 one truly dreadful night of wind and rain, thunder and 
 lightning, hearing that this awful tempest was caused by a 
 visit of the devil to bear away the soul of to the infernal 
 
30 THE DENHAJI TRACTS. 
 
 regions. And this portion of the popular creed is very widely 
 diffused throughout the length and breadth of the north of 
 England. Numerous are the chronicled instances which might 
 be quoted in support of this ancient national dogma. The 
 saying, " As busy as the devil in a gale of wind " is still used 
 in the North. 
 
 5. The common people, universally almost, connect subter- 
 raneous passages with buildings of antiquity, especially if they 
 are in a ruinous state. Communications of this sort are said to 
 exist between the highly interesting but desecrated chapel of 
 Old Richmond (on the Yorkshire banks, opposite Gainford), 
 and Cliffe Hall, some three miles further down the Tees; also 
 from St. Nicholas's to Easby Abbey, both in the vicinage of 
 Richmond ; so likewise between Penrith Castle and Dockwray 
 Hall, a distance of 307 yards ; also from Guisborough Priory to 
 a parcel of land called the Tocketts. A secret passage was also 
 connected with Anderson Place, Newcastle-on-Tyne. In con- 
 nection with Guisborough passage a curious legend is told. 
 Many other places might also be enumerated. 
 
 6. The not yet exploded belief in Fairies connects itself with 
 Fairy Slippers, Fairy Stones, Fairy Butter, Fairy Pipes (on 
 which, by-the-bye, a curious article might be written), Fairy 
 Cups, Fairy Cauldrons, Fairy "Wells, Fairy Hills, Fairy Rings, 
 Fairy Money, Elf Locks, Elf Shots, Fairy Cakes, Fairy Javelins, 
 Fairy Kettles, Fairy Loaves, Fairy Mushrooms, Elf Arrows, 
 Puck Fists, Fairy Flax, Fairy Bells {i.e. the flower of the Fox- 
 glove), Fairy Fingers, Fairy or Colpixy Heads, Elf Fire, Elf 
 Knots, Fairy Saddles, etc., etc. [See pp. 110-111.] 
 
 7. A bunch of ash keys carried in the hand preserves the 
 bearer from witchcraft ; as also does the twig of the rowan or 
 roan-tree. 
 
 8. It is commonly believed that if a female has a boy and 
 girl at ono birth she will never become pregnant again. 
 
folklore of the nokth of england. 3 1 
 
 Pancakes. 
 
 At Sheffield, pancakes are said to be thrown from the leads 
 of the churches on Shrove Tuesday ; and it is there held as a 
 sort of minor All Fools' Day ; for many are the children whom 
 more foolish adults are guilty of sending on the bootless errand 
 of catching them in their descent, the moment the church clock 
 strikes twelve. 
 
 In some farm houses it is still customary for the servants, 
 male as well as female, according to seniority, to fry, and toss 
 their pancakes ; but if they did not get it ate before the next 
 one was enough, they were dragged out of the house, put into 
 a wheelbarrow and whemmeled over upon the muck-midden. 
 
 Lifting. 
 
 The ancient, but not very becoming, custom of lifting or 
 stanging as it is called in Westmoreland, is still preserved in 
 many of the towns and villages on New Year's Day. On this 
 day the men lift the women upon a ladder or pole, and 
 occasionally in a chair or swill, carried by two or more men, 
 followed by a few dozens of youngsters, and hoist fliem away to 
 the nearest public-house ; where they are required, by the law 
 of prescriptive right, to call for a quart of ale, at tlic expense of 
 the female equestrian. If this payment, or promise thereof, is 
 not complied with, one of the lady's feet is denuded of its shoe, 
 which is left in pledge with the ale-wife. It is, as may be 
 supposed, always redeemed. 
 
 Goodman. 
 
 '' The good man of the house." This term signifies head of 
 the household, or chief of the clan. The word is still in popular 
 use. 
 
32 THE DENHAM TEACTS. 
 
 Candle-Bark. 
 
 This domestic utensil, now nearly out of use, yet still to be 
 met with in the possession of old housekeepers, is a cylindrical 
 box, formed originally of the bark of a certain tree, though 
 now of wood, but more generally of tin. It was the case 
 wherein candles were wont to be kept till wanted for use. 
 
 Herb-puddixg. 
 
 In the north it is still customary in some districts to have a 
 herb -pudding on day [a pudding of bitter herbs eaten 
 
 in Passion Week] ; in the composition of which the Passion or 
 Patience Dock, otherwise Eastern Giants* and young nettles, 
 hold the chief place. 
 
 The Quern Mill. 
 
 Of the primitive household mills, many hundreds if not 
 thousands, are still in existence, and many in the keeping of 
 those who ken nothing either of their history or use. Dr. 
 Johnson notices them as being still used in the Highlands at 
 the period of his visit. 
 
 Ball Playixg. 
 
 This game commences on Pancake Tuesday, and continues 
 without intermission till Easter. 
 
 [* Rumex Patientia ; a native of Itaty, introduced into English 
 cultivation in 1573. — Aiton's Hortua Kewensts, ii., p. 318. Patience 
 Dock is also given in Glossaries as a name of Polygonum Bistorta in 
 the North.] 
 
FOLKLORE OF THE NORTH OF ENGLAND. 33 
 
 Old Shoe. 
 
 When a young person is leaving his family and friends or 
 going to bo married, it is still usual to throw an old shoe after 
 him for luck. Many try to hit the party on the back. 
 
 Virgin Garlands. 
 
 This truly elegant custom has, I much fear, fallen into entire 
 desuetude. May I, however, live to see its restoration. Ono 
 of these votive garlands was solemnly borne before the coffin 
 by two girls, who placed it on the coffin in the church during 
 the reading of the church service for the burial of the dead. 
 Thence it was conveyed in the same manner to the grave, and 
 after the interment of the corpse was again taken to the church 
 and carefully deposited on the skreen dividing the quire from 
 the nave of the church, as an emblem of virgin purity, and of 
 the frailty and uncertainty of human life. 
 
 In Corydon's Doleful Knell, we read : — 
 
 " A garland shall be framed 
 By art and nature's skill, 
 Of sundry coloured flowers, 
 la token of good will.* 
 
 New Year's Gifts. 
 At Kirkby Stephen, Westmoreland, it is the custom for 
 
 * Mr. Denham in his correspondence mentions having recently 
 (22nd February, 1857) received a reduced facsimile of the virgin's 
 funeral garland, from Westmoreland. " It is really beautiful. I have 
 also an elegant specimen of a rush-bearer's garland from the same 
 county. Also a curiously formed palm cross, in which the ornamen- 
 tal parts are in various coloured silks ; but it falls far short of the 
 other articles in beauty." 
 
 VOL. It. D 
 
34 THE DBNHAM TRACTS. 
 
 children to beg their New Year's Gifts on the eve of this day. 
 Query. — Is this peculiar to the above county ? 
 
 Holy "Wells. 
 
 At Bowes, North Riding of Yorkshire, is one of those ancient ' 
 springs or fountains which our ancestors looked upon as sacred. 
 This spring of beautiful water is popularly known as Saint 
 Farmin's Well. Who Saint Farmin was I wot not, but there 
 was Firmin, a bishop of Usez in Languedoc, and to him no 
 doubt this spring was dedicated by the Norman clergy, who 
 would be settled at Bowes as chaplains at the castle, shortly after 
 the Conquest, in honour of their saintly countryman. At 
 Kirkby Stephen is a wonderfully copious spring, on the brink of 
 the Eden, known by the name of Ladywell, which has within 
 these few late years been appropriated to private uses. This 
 semi-sacrilegious act was committed by Francis Birkbeck of 
 Kirkby Stephen, who diverted the current of its waters down to 
 his brewery to convert into ale, and that, too, without the 
 slightest opposition on the part of the inhabitants of that wonder- 
 fully improving little country town. The well has ever been 
 looked upon as public property. Let justice be done. 
 
 Wooden Trenchers. 
 
 These primeval utensils were universally used in the servants' 
 
 hall at till a very recent period ; and in fact were 
 
 the usual platter for the tenants at the rent-day dinners, till 
 about the year 1830, or later. They were not superseded by 
 the fictile plate till after numerous objections had been raised by 
 the more independent and higher class of tenantry durino- many 
 previous years. Fruit puddings and roast beef (or rather 
 perhaps contrariwise) sweetened rum sauce, and beef and 
 
FOLKLORE OF THE NORTH OP ENGLAND. 35 
 
 mutton gravies, were all eaten off the same trencher. They now 
 (1851) eat off pottery, and have their plates changed like other 
 Christian folks. Salt and mustard spoons are, however, still 
 unknown Note, in 1512, pewter plates and dishes were con- 
 sidered a luxury only to be indulged in by the higher order of 
 nobles. Of pewter dishes a noble specimen still exists at Streat- 
 lam Castle, sufficiently large to contain the whole carcase of a 
 sheep. In fact, it was used for that purpose on the occasion of 
 the late Earl of Strathmore attaining his majority, and, as I 
 have been told, has never been used since. 
 
 A Taule of the Divisions of Land and Qualifications 
 of Nobility. 
 
 Ten families make a tything, 
 Fourteen carucatos were one tything, 
 Ten tythings make a hundred or wapentake, 
 Ten plough lands make a fee, 
 A twenty pound land make3 a knight's fee, 
 Twenty acres make an ox-gang, 
 Thirty acres make one yard of land, 
 One hundred acres make one hide of hind, 
 Five hides make one knight's foe, 
 Forty hides make a barony, 
 &c., &c. 
 
 Dykiss. 
 
 Tho objects or use of these works is unknown. In Berwick- 
 shire there was said to have been a rampart and trench called 
 lien-it's Dyke, running from east to west, now reduced to a 
 fragment. To descend to modern days, the entrenchment which 
 formerly surrounded the town of Newcastle-on-Tyne was called 
 the King's Dyke. 
 
 D2 
 
36 THE DENHAM TRACTS. 
 
 Game, Nursery, etc., Ehymes. 
 
 1 . Draw buckets of water, 
 For my lady's daughter ; 
 My father's a king, 
 
 And my mother's a queen, 
 And I've got a little sister 
 All dressed in green : 
 
 One by bush, 
 
 Two by bush. 
 Pray little sister, creep under my bush. 
 
 2. My left cheek, my right cheek [varia ear], 
 My left cheek burns : 
 
 If it be my enemy, ^ 
 
 Turn cheek turn ; 
 
 But if it be my true love, 
 
 Burn cheek burn. 
 
 Note. — Always begin the rhyme with the ear, or cheek that 
 burns; i.e., if it be the right cheek or ear, begin the rhyme 
 with it, or vice versa. 
 
 3. Bound about, round about, applety pie, 
 My daddy loves ale, and so do I. 
 Up, mammy, up, and bring us a cup, 
 And daddy and I will sup it all up. 
 
 4. I had a grandmother, but now she's dead, 
 And she learnt me to make cocklety-bread ; 
 She up with her heels and down with her head, 
 And this is the way to make cocklety bread. 
 
 5. My grandy's seeke 
 And like to dee, 
 And I'll away make her 
 Some cocklety-bread, 
 
 Cocklety-bread ; 
 And I'll away make her 
 Some cocklety-brend. 
 
FOLKLORE OF THE NORTH OF ENGLAND. 37 
 
 6. A man may care, and a man may spare, 
 And be always bare 
 
 If his wife be nought ! 
 But a man may spend, and a man may lend, 
 And always have a friend, 
 
 If his wife be ought. 
 
 Four Alls. 
 
 1. Soldier . . I fight for all ! 
 
 2 Parson ... I pray for all ! ! 
 
 3. Countryman . I work for all ! ! ! 
 
 4. Farmer . . I pay for all ! ! ! ! 
 
 A Christmas Rhyme. 
 
 At Woodhouse, near Sheffield, the children when they go 
 about amongst their neighbours to beg their Christmas box, 
 make use of tho following rhyming invocation : — 
 
 I wish you a merry Christmas 
 
 And a happy new year, 
 A pocket full of money 
 
 And a barrel full of beer, 
 A horse and a gig 
 
 And a good fat ]>ig 
 To serve you all the year. 
 If you please, will you give me a Christmas box ? 
 
 Beans at Funerals. 
 
 It was a custom with the heathens to distribute beans as a 
 funeral dole, and hence its adoption by the Roman Catholic 
 Church. The practice if not followed by some of the present 
 generation was till a comparatively recent period, and remains 
 chronicled in the following rhyme, which is still common : — 
 
 God save your siul. 
 Beans and all. 
 
38 the denham teacts. 
 
 North Side op Churches. 
 
 Still-born and unbaptised children, persons executed in 
 accordance with the law, felo-de-se, and in fact all persons who 
 laid violent hands on their own persons and brought themselves 
 to an unnatural death, persons excommunicated either by eccle- 
 siastical or civil law, and a variety of other offences deprived 
 those so transgressing of the benefit of Christian interment — 
 that is, there was neither service nor tolling of bell. They were 
 also buried " within the night on the backside of the church." 
 This antipathy to interment on the north also in a minor degree 
 extended itself to the west end of the church. Witness the west 
 end of the cemetery-garth at High Coniscliffe, near Darlington, 
 where till almost within the period of living memory no inter- 
 ments had taken place, the south and east portions alone being 
 used. 
 
 Such also, strange to say, was the case in the crowded grave- 
 yard attached to All Saints in Newcastle, up to the year 1826, 
 and probably may even still be the case. This circumstance I 
 gather from a mass of curious and valuable notes on a speech of 
 John Fenwick, Esq., of Newcastle, touching the propriety of 
 obtaining " a new place of sepulture.'' Newcastle on-Tyne 
 (2nd ed.), 1826, p. 22. Th? custom also prevails in Scotland. 
 
 Popular Names for ce 
 
 Ace of diamonds 
 
 Nine of diamonds 
 
 Six of hearts 
 
 Knave 
 
 Queen of clubs . 
 
 Four of spades . 
 
 Knave of clubs . 
 
 ktais Playing Cards. 
 
 The Earl of Cork. 
 
 The curse of Scotland. 
 
 The grace card. 
 
 A Bosworth mau. 
 
 Queen Bess. 
 
 Ned Stokes. 
 
 A Sunderland fitter. 
 
 The same card is called in Westmoreland " Curwen's card." 
 
 Four of hearts . . Hob Collingwood. 
 
FOLKLORE OF THE NORTH OF ENGLAND. 39 
 
 Seventh Son. 
 
 On the birth of a seventh son, it is still observed that he 
 must be a doctor. In the olden time a seventh son was 
 believed to be able to cure the king's evil, as well as the kings 
 themselves. The seventh son of a seventh son was blessed 
 with divine attributes of a still more unlimited power. 
 
 Honouring the Dead. 
 
 The custom . still remains, though only to a very limited 
 extent, of a person halting, although riding, for a moment, 
 when in the act of passing a funeral procession, and taking off 
 his hat. I admire this ancient usage, and would that it were 
 universally practised by all professing Christians. [This is 
 customary in the south of Scotland.] 
 
 Arvel Dinners. 
 
 Anciently it was only customary to have an arvel dinner 
 (i.e., funeral feast) on the decease of persons who were possessed 
 of valuable effects, when the friends and neighbours of the 
 family of the deceased were invited to dine on the clay of 
 interment. The custom is no doubt of great antiquity. At 
 this solemn festival the corpse was publicly exposed. The dead 
 are still so exposed in many eastern nations, and 'tis very pro- 
 bable that we derive the custom from our Roman conquerors. 
 
 A dinner of this class is expressly ordered under the will of 
 Will'me Aslackbye, of Richmonde, gentlema', 3rd March, 
 1573. 
 
 Others, again, in their wills order to the contrary, as did 
 Phil. Hagthorpe, of Nettleworth, in this county, in his will, 
 1610, charging his son as ho will answer him befoi'e God for 
 it, esteeming it " a grete vanity to bestow a grete dinner and 
 
40 THE DENHAM TRACTS. 
 
 other charges vainly on men when they are gone." Surtees, 
 ii. 204. On the contrary John Lively (vicar) of Kelloe, orders 
 £30 to be expended on his funeral. He died 165 1. 
 
 " At Bowes, Yorks., where ye Arvel Dinner still prevails, 
 the chief and chosen dish at the well spread board is a rich veal 
 pie, well stored with currants and raisins, and of sweet spices. 
 The funeral pie was ate at an early period, and is described as 
 being made of ' shrid meates.' These dinners were whiles 
 set forth in the middest of the chancell of the church after 
 the interment." * In some districts of England formerly no 
 women went to men's funerals, nor men to the funerals of 
 women, f 
 
 " In northern customs duty was exprest 
 To friends departed by their funeral feast."J 
 
 The Cradle. 
 
 In all sales, either under distraint for rent or common debt, 
 it is an ancient and invariable custom to leave the cradle unsold, 
 and the original owner is at liberty to repossess it. 
 
 Leaping the Well. 
 
 The singular and filthy custom of leaping the well on St. 
 Mark's Day, at Alnwick, fell into almost total disuse this year, 
 and it is almost more than probable that the year 1852 will see 
 the usage entirely abandoned. Peace to its ashes ! 
 
 An Irish Stone. 
 
 A stone bearing the above name is still preserved by my 
 respected friend Mr. Thomas Hedlcj*, of New Eoad, New- 
 castle-upon-Tyne, son of Mr. Thomas Hedley, of Woolaw, in 
 
 * Sharpe's Survey of London, bk. i. p. 259. 
 f Misson's Travels in England, p. 91. 
 \ King's Art of Cookery, p. 65. 
 
FOLKLORE OF THE NORTH OF ENGLAND. 41 
 
 Redcsdale. These stones were at one time common in the 
 dales of Northumberland, and were used as a charm to deter 
 frogs, toads, and the whole of the serpent tribe from entering 
 the dwelling-house of their possessor. In size the stone is 
 three-and-a-quarter inches in diameter, of a cake form, is of 
 a pale brown or dark drab colour, and about three-quarters of 
 an inch thick in the middle where it is the thickest. It is 
 imperforated, and therefore of a genus quite distinct from the 
 Holy Stones, which are still so common, in the north especially.* 
 
 God speed them weel. 
 
 John Bowser, a quondam parish clerk of Coniscliffe, used on 
 the first publication of a Banns of marriage to pronounce the 
 pretty little benison of " God speed them weel ! " on the happy 
 couple, who the moment before were " thrown over the church 
 balks ; " which use, in conjunction with his broad local dialect, 
 invariably caused a smile and a blush, not only on the glowing 
 visage of the clerk himself, but also that of the whole adult 
 portion of his hearers. 
 
 Bowing towards the East. 
 
 Many straggling instances remain, not only of ancient people, 
 but also their offspring, bending the body towards the cast in 
 adoration, ere they enter their pew or stall , and no doubt in 
 very many instances without knowing either the meaning or 
 origin of the custom. 
 
 * Recently this stone was sent to me to examine. It is a flattish, 
 smooth, honey-coloureil quartzose sub-circular stone, apparently from 
 river gravel. It had been oiled to keep it shining. It has now been 
 presented to the Museum of the Society of Antiquaries, Newcastle- 
 upon-Tyne. Mr. Thomas Hcdlcy, the original holder, was usually 
 known as " The Liltle King of Woolaw." — Beminiscences of Samuel 
 Donkin, pp. 13, 78-9— J. H. 
 
42 THE DBNHAM TRACTS. 
 
 KlVER-GODS. 
 
 The belief of our credulous ancestry in a female river demon 
 is still early implanted in the mind of childhood on the banks of 
 the Tees. Peg-Powler is the evil goddess of the Tees ; and 
 many are the tales still told at Piersebridge, of her dragging 
 naughty children into its deep waters when playing, despite the 
 orders and threats of their parents, on its banks — especially on 
 the Sabbath-day. And the writer still perfectly recollects being 
 dreadfully alarmed in the days of his childhood lest, more 
 particularly when he chanced to be alone on the margin of 
 those waters, she should issue from the stream and snatch him 
 into her watery chambers. 
 
 Sir Walter Scott in the Lay of the Last Minstrel, relates a 
 story of the spirit of the Tweed compelling the lady of the 
 Baron of Drummelzier to submit to his embraces ; so that on 
 the return of her lawful lord from the Holy Land he found his 
 fair lady nursing a healthy boy, whose age did not correspond 
 to the period of his departure. The lady, however, was 
 believed, and the child, to whom the name of Tweedie was 
 given, afterwards became Baron of Drummelzier and the chief 
 of a powerful clan.* 
 
 The foam or froth which is occasionally seen floating on this 
 river in large masses is called Peg Powler's Suds, and the finer 
 and less sponge- like froth is known by that of Peg Powler's 
 Cream. 
 
 * "According to a favourite mythic story, the first of theTweedies 
 was the child of a species of water-spirit or genius of the Tweed, and 
 hence the name. Records show that the earlier members of the family 
 were designated from their lands on the Tweed ; as, for example, 
 'John of Tuedie.'" — History of Peeblesshire, by William Chambers, p. 
 422, note.— J. H. 
 
FOLKLORE OF THE NOKTH OF ENGLAND. 43 
 
 Mr. Keigbtley (a high authority on these matters), says that 
 the Thames, Avon, and a few other English rivers which he does 
 not name, seem never to have been the abode of a neck or kelpy. 
 
 Wedding Custom. 
 
 The custom of giving a ribbon to be run for is still extensively 
 practised at weddings in the rural districts of the southern 
 portion of the Bishopric. 
 
 Christening Custom. 
 
 A few families still adopt the practice of taking a slice of the 
 Christening cake along with them, when taking the child to be 
 received and engrafted into the congregation and body of Christ's 
 Church, and making an offering of it to the first person they 
 meet. Should this bo a man they say the next child born in the 
 village will be a male, if a woman, it will be a female ! 
 
 Holy or Lucky Stores. 
 
 These stones, also called hag, (? witch), adder or snake- 
 stones, and by the Scots fairy-cups, are occasionally seen 
 suspended to the tester of a bedhead to prevent the nightmare. 
 They are also placed over the backs of cows or other beasts as 
 an efficacious remedy and preventive of the malady called hoose 
 or huse ; that is, difficulty of breathing. These stones may be 
 considered holy or sacred in a twofold sense ; first, because they 
 have a hole through them ; and secondly, because like holy- 
 water, they are equally beneficial in keeping all sort?, kinds 
 and descriptions of evil spirits at a safe distance. 
 
 Note. — These stones to be at all efficacious must be holed 
 naturally. One hung over the head of a horse will prevent 
 its sweating in tho stable. (See the oewn anguinum of the 
 
44 THE DENHAM TEACTS. 
 
 Gauls described by Pliny, iVafc Hist 1. xxix., ciii.) The name 
 is also applied to "celts" (i.e., stone-weapons). 
 
 Tansy Pudding. 
 
 This piece of olden cookery is yet to be occasionally met with 
 in Northumberland and the County Palatine. The late Mr. 
 Church, the house surgeon of Newcastle Infirmary, was parti- 
 cularly fond of tansy puddings, and his cook was, I understand, 
 an excellent hand at preparing them. 
 
 Old Rothbuky. 
 
 In the four northern counties we meet with the following 
 names and places to which the word old is attached. In Nor- 
 thumberland we have Old Town, Old Hepple, Old Learmouth, 
 Old Bewick, Old Yeavering, Old Middleton, Old Heaton, Old 
 Lyham, Old Felton, Old Helscy, Old Ridley, Old Rothbury. 
 In Cumberland, Old Malbray, Old Scales, Old Carlisle, Old 
 Park, Old Town, Old Wall, Old Penrith. In Westmoreland, 
 Old Hutton, Old Town, Old Appleby. In Durhamshire, Old 
 Hall, Old Park, Old Acres, Old Durham. 
 
 Fish and Ring. 
 
 The town of Pickering is said to have been built by King Peri- 
 durus, about 270 years before the birth of Christ, and to have 
 derived its name from the circumstance of that prince losing a 
 ring when washing himself in ye River Costa, which ring was 
 afterwards found in the belly of a pike. Hence Pike-ring, 
 now Pickering. 
 
 A fish and ring story is also attached to the ancient and 
 knightly family of Anderson, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, which is. 
 said to have happened about the year 1559. This ring, I believe 
 is still preserved by tho family. There is also a singular York- 
 shire legend of this class, in which a knight of the name of 
 
FOLKLORE OF THE NORTH OF ENGLAND. 45 
 
 Tempest acts his part most cruelly. This latter story has not 
 only given origin to a penny Chap Book, still highly popular, 
 but also to a very excellent ballad, entitled, " The Yorkshire 
 Garland, or the Cruel Knight and the Fortunate Farmer's 
 Daughter. In three Parts, &c. &c." 8pp., containing 60 
 verses, a printed copy of which is in the writer's possession. 
 
 Thunder Stone. 
 
 The quartz pebble, which is so common in the beds of rivers 
 and also in tillage fields, is popularly known by the name of 
 " thunder," or rather " thunner staane," and is believed to have 
 dropped from the clouds during a thunder storm. 
 
 Crossing the Witches Out. 
 
 This useful and necessary ceremony is performed by all good 
 housekeepers the moment they lay the leaven-trough, contain- 
 ing the batch of dough, down upon the hearthstone to rise 
 previous to baking. The process is simple, and is performed by 
 making the sign of the cross thereon with the forefinger of the 
 right hand ; and this act not only prevents' the dough from 
 sticking to the pasteboard, but also from falling, as it is termed, 
 both before and after putting into the oven. It also prevents 
 witches exercising any of their devilish arts in connection 
 therewith. My housekeeper performs this duty as regularly as 
 the baking day comes. 
 
 Bachelors and Old Maids. 
 
 A man may not legally be termed an old bachelor until he 
 hath attained the age of fifty years, three months, and three 
 days ; but as regards the precise period at which a lady becomes 
 an old maid it is undecided, both by ancients and moderns. 
 Youth of heart miiy exist for a hundred years, and even 
 
46 the denham tracts. 
 
 John "Wycltffe. 
 
 At Lutterworth, Leicestershire, they have a tradition that 
 since the bones of Wycliffe were burnt, and thrown into the 
 Swift, the river has never overflowed its banks. 
 
 Button Rhyme. Westmoreland. 
 
 A tinkler, a tailor, 
 A soldier, or a sailor, 
 A rich man, a poor man, 
 A priest, or a parson, 
 A ploughman, or a thief. 
 
 Bows and Arrows. 
 
 In a survey of Carlisle Castle, in the reign of Queen Eliza- 
 beth, there was found in one of the rooms twelve bows of yew, 
 and seventy of elm, all unfit for service. Pretty strong proof of 
 their not being much needed. The customary number of arrows 
 contained in a quiver to the battlefield was twenty-four, " trussed 
 in a thrumme." The best arrows were made of asp ; but ash, 
 oak, and birch were also used. The arrow for warfare was 
 thirty-two inches in length, with a sharp unbarbed iron head of 
 four inches or thereabouts. The length of the English border 
 bow was generally five feet eight inches, with a bend of about 
 nine inches. The bowstring was of plaited or twisted silk or 
 hemp, but where the notches for the arrow were placed, they 
 were made round. Bows were made of elm, witch hazel or 
 ash, but yew was the favourite wood. The planting of yew in 
 ground appropriated to interments, doubtless arose from the fact 
 of its nature being so prejudicial and poisonous to horned cattle. 
 In the reign of Edward III., bows of laburnum * were in use. 
 
 Also called nwburne and awbume saugh. 
 
FOLKLORE OF THE NORTH OF ENGLAND. 47 
 
 These, however, were probably imported, as I don't find that 
 tree was then introduced into England. Ascham saith the 
 Scots hath a proverb that " Every English archer carried under 
 his belt twenty-four Scots," which evidently alludes to the 
 above number of unerring shafts. The range of a good bow was 
 from three to four hundred yards, and, at a moderate distance 
 an arrow would pass through an inch board. Six arrows might 
 bo shot in the time required for the loading of a musket. 
 
 About the year 1417, the king, Henry IV., ordered his 
 <l sherives " of many counties to pluck from every goose six 
 wing feathers for the purpose of improving arrows. Hall and 
 Lloyd's Cyclopcedia, " Archery." Those of a bird of three years 
 old were to be preferred, and that the feathers may drop off 
 themselves when ripe. One of the three feathers in each arrow 
 was grey to regulate the placing. 
 
 To rain Swords and Pistols. 
 
 The above, and also to rain sticks and stones, dogs and cats, 
 awd wives and pipe stoppers, grey meears and fiddlers,*&c.,&c, 
 are common similes when speaking of an extremely heavy fall 
 of rain in the north of England. I have somewhere an account 
 of a shower of flesh and blood, but cannot at this moment lay 
 my hands on it. 
 
 During a heavy rain in India the natives say : — " It pours 
 down monkeys with their mouths open." 
 
 * It rains dogs and cats, and little pitchforks. 
 It rains helter skelter. 
 It rains dogs and awde wives by dozens. 
 It rains dogs and cats, and aw'll lap myscll int' skins. 
 
 Westmoreland. 
 
48 THE DENHAM TRACTS. 
 
 VULGAR ErKOES. 
 
 There is a superstition in the north of England, that blankets 
 or petticoats formed of a material made from fallen wool, are 
 very apt to have lice,* and by my fay I do think there may be 
 truth in the observation, especially if worn by dirty folks, and 
 seldom or never washed. 
 
 It is a pretty generally diffused article of belief that the dust 
 of a fuzzy ball cast in the eyes will cause blindness (hence in 
 Scotland called " blind man's bellowses.") 
 
 Soon teeth soon toes. This means that if your baby's teeth 
 begin to sprout early, you will soon have toes, i.e., another 
 baby. 
 
 4. The ceasing to flow of the celebrated Yorkshire springs, 
 known by the name of the Nipseys or Gripseys, for an unusual 
 length of time, is said to foretell dearth of corn, and scarcity of 
 provisions. 
 
 5. The egg given on a child's first visit should be preserved ; 
 it betokeneth good fortune to the future man. 
 
 6. Red garters are considered by certain ladies an effectual 
 charm against the " rheumatiz." But I believe to act properly, 
 i.e., effectually, they should be stolen. 
 
 7. Fill the cavities of extracted teeth with salt, and burn 
 in the fire saying the while : — 
 
 Fire, fire, burn baan, 
 
 God send me my tuthe agaan. 
 
 8. A child should not be suffered to look in a glass before it 
 is twelve months old. 
 
 * ["A lupis occisarum ovinm polios pediculos procreunt." — 
 Aristotle, cited in Joli. Johnstcmi Thaumatographia NaturaUs, p. 319, 
 Amsterdam, 1661 ; Pliny, Hist. Xat., lxi. c. 33.— J. H.] 
 
FOLKLORE OF THE NORTH OF ENGLAND. 49 
 
 9. To rock an empty cradle is considered ominous of a 
 coming occupant. 
 
 10. Many look upon it as a wicked piece of presumption on 
 the part of parents to endeavour to perpetuate a favourite 
 baptismal name, when death has snatched away its first bearer, 
 and should the second, third, or fourth of the name survive (and 
 it is a common observation that such is rarely the case) he is 
 sure to prove a " graceless prodigal." Apropos, I have a not 
 far distant relative who is the third representative of his name 
 in his parent's family whose opportunities of doing well have 
 been many, yet being " a bit of a graceless" the fellow never 
 would try. He is still living, and a truthful monument of the 
 impropriety, folly, and impiety of his parent's wickedness in 
 thus tempting God ! ! ! [Himself?]. 
 
 11. If the first person a funeral procession meets on taking a 
 corpse to the church for interment is a male, a female is sure to 
 be the next who dies in the village or district ; if a female, then 
 it will be a male. 
 
 12. The vulgar superstition which is common to all the people 
 of a Germanic origin, of the corpse of a murdered person bleeding 
 on being touched by the murderer is still maintained. 
 
 13. If the flesh and joints of a corpse retain their softness and 
 pliability, it portends, it is said, another death, if not in the 
 household at least in the same family, in quick time. 
 
 Brimstone Pan. 
 
 In the days of flint, steel, and brimstone matches, it was the 
 invariable custom, and no doubt an ancient one, to enfold the 
 bowl portion of the brimstone pan after using in paper, and so 
 hang it away till next wanted. Whence the origin of this 
 i! sago ? 
 
 VOL. II. E 
 
50 THE DENHAM TRACTS. 
 
 Charm for Foul in the Foot. 
 
 Horned cattle are subject to a filthy disease in their feet, 
 called tbul ; the popular remedy for which is a sort of charm, 
 to wit, notice upon what portion of turf the beast treads with 
 its diseased foot, and scoop it up with a spade or large knife, 
 around which tie a piece of cord and suspend it in the open air ; 
 and as the said turf wastes away by exposure to the weather, 
 the animal's foot will recover from the effects of the foul. 
 Many still use no other remedy, looking upon it as an infallible 
 cure. 
 
 Church Use. 
 
 The old though now, 1856, superannuated clerk of Manfield 
 Church, Yorks, at the conclusion of the Gospel used to respond, 
 Thanks be to God for His Holy Word. 
 
 Need Fire. 
 
 The father of the writer, who died 1843, in his 79th year, 
 had a perfect remembrance of a great number of persons, be- 
 longing to the upper and middle classes of his native parish of 
 Bowes, assembling on the banks of the river Greta to work for 
 need fire. A disease among cattle, called the murrain, then 
 prevailed to a very great extent through that district of York- 
 shire. The cattle were made to pass through the smoke raised 
 by this miraculous fire, and their cure was looked upon as 
 certain, and to neglect doing so was looked upon as wicked. 
 
 This fire was produced by the violent and continued friction 
 of two dry pieces of wood until such time as it was thereby 
 obtained. 
 
 "To work as though one was working for need fire" is a 
 common proverb in the North of England. 
 
FOLKLORE OF THE NORTH OF ENGLAND. 51 
 
 River Ouse. 
 
 It is said that the River Ouse has on two occasions divided 
 and opened a dry passage of three miles in extent, first in the 
 year 1399, before the Civil Wars, and again in the year 1648, 
 before the reign of King Charles. 
 
 Wedding Omen. 
 
 It is looked upon as decidedly unlucky for a bridal party to 
 be making their vows before the altar of Hymen during the 
 striking of the church clock. It portends the death of the bride 
 or bridegroom before the expiration of the year. 
 
 Taylors. 
 
 The primitive use of employing taylors in the making of 
 ladies' wearing apparel has only fallen into entire desuetude 
 within the last sixty j'ears. 
 
 Nobody Coming to Marry Me. — (Printed Set.) 
 
 Last night the dogs did bark, 
 
 I went to the gate to see, 
 When ev'ry lassie had her spark, 
 
 But nobody comes to me. 
 And it's oh, dear ! what will become of me ! 
 
 Oh, dear ! what shall I do ? 
 Nobody coming to marry me, 
 
 Nobody coming to woo. 
 
 My father's a hedger and ditcher, 
 
 My mother docs nothing but spin, 
 And 1 n pretty young girl, 
 
 Hut the money comes slowly in. 
 
 And it's oh, dear ! &c. 
 E2 
 
•'»2 THE 0ENHAM TRACTS. 
 
 They say I am beauteous and fair. 
 They say I am scornful and proud ; 
 
 Alas ! I must now despair, 
 For ah ! I am grown very old. 
 
 And it's oh, dear ! &c. 
 
 And now I must die an old maid, 
 
 Oh, dear ! how shocking the thought ! 
 
 And all my beauty must fade, 
 But I'm sure it's not my fault. 
 
 And it's oh, dear ! &c. 
 
 From The Lyre, published at Edinburgh, about 1825. 
 
 Anon. 
 
 A Lamentable Dittie ; or, Juvenile Funeral Hymn. 
 
 What say you to the following Lament for the Dead ? I 
 heard it sung (3rd Aug., 1849) in not very doleful measure by 
 more than half a dozen bairns ; and was so much taken with 
 the beauty of the composition that I was induced to implant it 
 on the tablet of my memory till I found time to write it down 
 in a book. I must premise that the children were playing the 
 ceremonies attendant on a funeral, and the eldest of the little 
 group, who could not be more than eight years of age, gave it 
 in right clerk-like style, time by time, as follows : 
 
 Poor Johnny's deed that nice young man, 
 
 That nice young man, 
 
 That nice young man, 
 
 "We'se nivver see him more ; 
 He used to wear a fustian coat, 
 
 A fustian coat, 
 
 A fustian coat, 
 
 That buttoned up before ! 
 
 It is scarcely necessary to give the name of the tune, as the 
 
FOLKLOBE OF THE NOKTH OF ENGLAND. 53 
 
 rhymes of this somewhat curious threnodie, intuitively set them- 
 selves to their own right proper tune. 
 
 Nursery Kiiymes. 
 
 1. Brenky my nutty-cock,* 
 Brenk him away ; 
 My nutty-cock's nivver 
 Been brenk'd to-day : 
 What wi' carding and spinning on t' wheel, 
 We've nivver had time to brenk nutty-cock weel : 
 But let to-morrow come ivver so snne, 
 My nutty-cock it sail be brenk'd by mine. 
 
 Com. to J. 0. Halliwell, Esq. 
 
 2. Bonny lass, canny lass, will ta be mine ? 
 
 Thou'se neither wesh dishes, nor sarra the swine ; 
 Tlum sail sit on a cushion, and sew up a seam, 
 And thou sail cat strawberries, sugar, and cream. 
 
 Com. to J. 0. Halliwell, Esq. 
 
 3. Black and white i3 my delight, 
 And green and yellow's bonny, 
 I woud'nt part with mi' sweetheart, 
 For all my father's money. 
 
 4. I'll away yhame. 
 And tell my dyame, 
 
 That all my geese, 
 Are ghane, but yhan ; 
 
 And its a steg, 
 
 And its lost a leg, 
 And it'll be ghane, 
 By I get yhame. 
 
 Nuttv-cock is an olden term of endearment. 
 
M THE DENHAM TRACTS. 
 
 5. Rosemary green and lavender blue, 
 
 Thyme and sweet marjoram, hyssop and run. 
 
 6. If! If! If! 
 
 If I had gold in goupins, 
 
 If I had money in store/ 
 If I had gold in goupins, 
 
 My laddie should work no more. 
 He should have a maid to wait upon him, 
 
 Another to curl his hair ; 
 He should have a man to buckle his shoe, 
 
 And then he should work na mair. 
 
 7. On Royal Oak Day. 
 
 The twenty-ninth of May 
 Is Royal Oak Day ; 
 If you winnot give us a holiday, 
 We'll all run away. 
 
 A rather superior rhyme of the school-boy class. 
 
 Burying Cakes, Westmoreland. 
 
 The primeval custom of presenting each relative and friend of 
 the deceased when they attend the corpse-house on the day of 
 interment with an arvel cake, still, everything but universally, 
 prevails in many towns and villages in Westmoreland. At 
 Kirkby Stephen these offerings are of no trifling number at one 
 individual funeral, nor yet of trifling individual dimensions. 
 These cakes, which should always be pocketed [this word must 
 be received figuratively ; the fact is they are too large for the 
 modern pocket of either sex, and the cake has in general to be 
 tied up in the pocket napkin of its possessor] and taken home, 
 are, I can assure your readers, of that magnitude that one of 
 
FOLKLORE OF THE NORTH OF ENGLAND. 55 
 
 them would be considered quite enough to serve three or four 
 " maydenly laydies " at a tea-drinking. I have on various 
 occasions seen these cakes but never tasted them ; but those who 
 have inform me that the popular colloquial name of burying 
 cake is a very correct one ; for that, owing to some peculiar 
 spice which is commixt with the flour, fruit, &c, they always, 
 both in smell and taste, remind them of a clay-cold corpse and 
 an oaken coffln. Occasionally as many as 100 are given at a 
 funeral, and the cost varies from 3d. to 4d. each cake. 
 
 ' May Kittens. 
 
 " Never keep a May kitten." Old saying. 
 
 Kittens born in May are even still proverbially spoken of and 
 looked upon as bad mousers. I only within the present year 
 heard a female say that "she wad nivver mair keep a May 
 kitten as lang as she lived, for they were just good for naught at 
 all ! " [They are unlucky to keep ; and besides, they suck the 
 breath of very young infants : From Long Benton, Newcastle.] 
 
 Death Omen. Howling of Doas. 
 
 The howling of dogs, cither by night or day, is siill con- 
 sidered to portend death, either in the house nearest to which 
 they howl, or to some of their kith or kindred. 
 
 Man is the Moon. 
 
 Our ancestors believed that this imaginary personage was 
 a veritable man, of flesh, blood, and bones, such as we are, 
 who, by way of example to all succeeding generations, was 
 taken up into the air donned in his working clothes, along with 
 his fork of tree, on the prongs of which he carried a bundle of 
 sticks (thorns), which he had stolen, across his right shoulder, 
 
56 THE DJSNHAM TRACTS. 
 
 a horn Ian thorn in his left hand, and also his little dog (whose 
 name I forget), and the whole of them stuck against the face 
 of the moon, and all for transgressing the fourth command in 
 the Decalogue. The following stanza (the third) of an old 
 " three man's song," adds a valuable item to the traditions in 
 connection with this relic of olden mythology. The name of 
 the song is " Martin said to his Man " : — 
 
 1 see a man in the moone, 
 
 Fie ! man, Fie ! 
 I see a man in the moone, 
 
 Who's the Foole now ? 
 I see a man in the moone, 
 Clouting of St. Peter's shoone ; 
 Thou hast well drunken man ; 
 
 Who's the Foole now ? 
 
 Deuteromelia, or the second part of 
 Mustek's Melodies, 4to, 1609. 
 
 " As for the forme of those spots, some of the vulgar fhinke 
 they represent a man, and the poets guesse 'tis the boy 
 Endymion, whose company shee loves so well that she carries 
 him with her. Others will have it onely to be the face of a 
 man as the moone is usually pictured ; but Albertus thinkes 
 rather that it represents a lyon, with his taile towards the east 
 and his head to the west, and some others (Eusebius Nieremb. 
 Hist. Nat., lib. viii. cxv.) have thought it to be very much 
 like a fox, and certainly 'tis as much like a lyon as that in the 
 Zodiacke, or as Ursa Major is like a beare." — Bishop Wilkin's 
 Discovery of a New World, 3rd edit. Lond. 1640, p. 100. 
 
 This myth is thought to be the most ancient of all our still 
 popular superstitions. Many, very many, there are who can 
 see all these figures in the moon ; but, truth to tell, I never 
 could. All that my weak vision has been able to discover in 
 the moon amounts to no more than two eyes, a nose, and a 
 
FOLKLORE OF THE NORTH OF ENGLAND. 57 
 
 mouth, just as we see " ye ould laydie " depictured in the 
 almanacks of Francis Moore, physician, astrologer, and school- 
 master. Others who are totally lacking of faith look upon both 
 matters as mere moonshine. Be it as it may, we have, how- 
 ever, an old, very old, proverb, which holds out timely warning 
 to the present generation of unbelievers, to wit : c> Have a care 
 lest the churl fall out o' the moon." 
 
 The origin of this myth will be found in Numbers c. xv., 32, 
 et set]. Alexander Necham, a writer of the twelfth century, 
 notices the popular belief in this fable. See Iialliwcll's Popular 
 IUiym.es and Nursery Tales, p. 229. 
 
 Palm Crosses. 
 
 These beautiful and interesting relics of ancient days and 
 forgotten ceremonies are still often to be seen in the hands of 
 children in the North of England on Palm Sunday. The 
 remaining portion of the year they hang upon a nail against 
 the whitewashed wall of mayhap the poor man's only room ; 
 and being formed of gay colours artistically arranged in one, 
 two, and occasionally three crosses, are no mean or despicable 
 appendage. In the triumphant days of popery they were 
 considered indispensable in the hands of old and young, rich 
 and poor. Hence the proverb, " He that hath not a palm in 
 his hands on Palm Sunday must have his hand cut off." 
 
 Urchins, varia Hedgehogs. 
 
 Another relic of the old world times in the Bishopric is that 
 hedgehogs or urchins, as we call them, have still imputed to 
 them the offence of sucking the milk of cows as they sleep. I 
 have endeavoursd to dislodge the fable from the minds of several 
 of the unlearned, but my endeavour to do so only tended to 
 increase their olden faith. 
 
58 the denham teacts. 
 
 Cbqbsing out the Rainbow. 
 
 When a schoolboy I recollect that we were wont, on the 
 
 appearance of a rainbow, to place a couple of straws or twigs 
 
 on the ground in the form of a + , in order to dispel the sign 
 
 in the heavens, or, as we termed it, to " cross out the rainbow." 
 
 Lucky Bohe. 
 
 This relic of another olden superstition is now seldom seen, 
 and still more seldom used, at least in the Xorth. This bone, 
 which was worn as an amulet round the neck to ensure good 
 luck, and protect the wearer from fairies, witches, " and all 
 sike like uncanny folk," was taken from the head of a sheep. 
 Its form was that of T [Tau or cross], a sacred symbol not only 
 in Christian, but also in Druidical monuments, and ancient and 
 modern heraldry. 
 
 Lyke Wake. 
 
 The custom of waking the corpse still exists in a few families, 
 but the use is now far from general. Every ancient usage in 
 connection therewith has vanished in my resident locality ; and 
 I am glad to observe that I have never heard of a single instance 
 of intoxication where practised. 
 
 Excessive Grief for the Dead. 
 
 An old woman still- living (1854) in Piersebridge. who 
 mourned with inordinate grief for a length of time the loss of 
 a favourite daughter, assorts that she was visited by the spirit 
 of her departed child, and earnestly exhorted not to disturb 
 her peaceful repose by unnecessary lamentations and repinings 
 at the will of God ; and from that time she never grieved more. 
 
FOLKLORE OF THE NOKTH OF ENGLAND. 59 
 
 Events of this kind were common a century ago. So the "Wife 
 of Usher's Well." 
 
 [This popular belief receives an illustration from Proudlock's 
 poems (a local Northumbrian writer, who died in early life, in 
 1826). In a tragic poem, entitled " Leah's Daughter," Dinah 
 so grieves for the loss of Sb.ecb.em, that his ghost appears to 
 warn her that her lamentations disturbed him in the grave. 
 
 " Glutsi. Dinali ! am I thus rewarded 
 
 For the love unfeigned I bore ? 
 
 Is thy lover's shade regarded ? 
 
 Dinali, then, lament no more ; 
 
 With thy oft-repeated ' woes ' 
 
 Thou hast broken my repose. 
 
 Dry thy tears then ; cease thy wailing — 
 
 Woful wander not from home, 
 
 Seeing all are unavailing — 
 
 They have brought me from the tomb ; 
 
 But 'tis to bid thee cease : 
 
 Be at peace — and I'm at peace." — p. 112.] 
 
 " Leetening afore Death." 
 
 A dying person will occasionally not only be restored to all 
 sense of memory and speech, show great vigour and alacrity, 
 but will also arise from his bed and hold conversation with his 
 family as if in perfect health. Ibis is termed " a lightening 
 before death." 
 
 " How oft when men are at the point of death, 
 Have they been merry ? whirl i their keepers call 
 A lightning before death." 
 
 Eomso and Juliet, act v., so. 3. 
 
 Touching the Dead. 
 Doubtless this custom is of corresponding quality with one 
 
60 THE DENHAM TRACTS. 
 
 previously noted on touching the body of a murdered person, 
 and is equally to prove (though without the resting suspicion) 
 that you are entirely guiltless of the death of the deceased, not 
 in act alone, but also in prayer. This public exposure of the 
 corpse was also to exculpate the heir and those entitled to the 
 possessions of the deceased from fines and mulcts to the lord of 
 the manor, and from all accusations of violence ; so that the 
 whole company might avouch that the person died fairly and 
 without suffering any personal injury. Formerly, too, it was 
 done to prevent the unhouseled spirit troubling you either by 
 night or day. But we moderns, having, in part at least, 
 renounced our belief in ghosts, say that it is to prevent our 
 dreaming of seeing the dead body. 
 
 Bloody Stones. 
 
 Of these stones tradition still points out several with blood- 
 stained tales of robbery and murder of benighted pedlar, 
 traveller, or neighbour connected with them throughout the 
 North of England. These stones are believed to have absorbed 
 a portion of the blood of the murdered one, and it said that 
 nothing can possibly remove it hence. In many cases the 
 ghost of the departed is said to keep mournful watch by night 
 upon them, to the great annoyance of the innocent and best 
 disposed portion of the folks living near it. This I have 
 always considered a very bad trait indeed in the character of 
 English hobgoblins. Geologists, however, account for the marks 
 in stones of this class in a more natural waj% by asserting that 
 they are natural ones, and in good sooth I give not only fall 
 credit to the assertion, but beg leave to confirm it. 
 
 Subterranean Passages. 
 Traditionary passages, of which so many legendary stories are 
 
FOLKLORE OF THE NORTH OF ENGLAND. 61 
 
 told, are obviously nothing more than the extensive sewers or 
 vennels extending from the kitchens of the castle, mansions, and 
 religious houses of olden time. 
 
 The swineherd of Will. Peverell, an English baron, having 
 lost a brood-sow, descended through a deep abyss in the middle of 
 an ancient and ruinous castle, situated on the top of a hill called 
 Bech, in search of it. Though a violent wind commonly issued 
 from this pit, he found it calm within, and pursued his way till 
 he arrived at a subterranean region, pleasant and cultivated, with 
 reapers cutting down the corn, though the snow remained on 
 the surface of the ground above. Among the corn he discovered 
 his sow, and was permitted to ascend with her and the pigs 
 which she had farrowed. Genase of Tilbury, p. 975. 
 
 By one of these passages the English repossessed themselves 
 of the castle of Wark after the surprise and butchery of its 
 garrison by Will. Halliburton of Fast Castle, 1319, when, in 
 return for the death of Robert Ogle* and his troops, the English 
 butchered the whole of the Scots. 
 
 A passage of this sort formerly extended from Anderson 
 Place, Newcastle, in the direction of the Manors ; and coins of 
 Edward III. were found in it. By this underground com- 
 munication King Charles is said to have attempted to escape. 
 
 An instance is also on record of an ancient fairyman making 
 his complaint to Sir Godfrey MacCulloch, a Gallovidian knight, 
 of a certain drain or common sewer, beneath Sir Godfrey's 
 castle, which emptied itself directly into his chamber of dais. 
 With courtesy the knight assured him of the speedy alteration 
 of tho drain, which was done accordingly. For this act, the 
 old man, many years after, preserved Sir Godfrey from the 
 scaffold when the executioner was ready to strike the fatal blow. 
 
 Ogle was not killed at all, see Forduu. 
 
62 THE DENHAM TRACTS. 
 
 Tradition and real fact place this event in the year 1697. See 
 Brockett's Gloss, vol. ii. p. 166, 3rd ed. 
 
 The earliest instance we have of an underground drain in 
 connection with civil or military buildings occurs in the reign 
 of Henry III., 1216.— Turner's Domestic Architecture. 
 
 There are old wives' tales of subterranean passages which 
 connect the totally destroyed village of old Richmond, not only 
 with Cradock Hall, at Gainford, on the opposite bank of the 
 Tees, but also with ClifFe Hall, fully three miles down the 
 river. 
 
 Money Digging. 
 King John was so impressed with the idea that Corbridge 
 had been a large and populous city destroyed by an earthquake 
 or some sudden and terrible invasion, when the inhabitants 
 would bo unable to remove their wealth, that he ordered his 
 officers to make a diligent search for treasures which he 
 supposed were buried beneath the ruins. Simonburn Castle 
 " was pulled down to satisfy a violent curiosity the country 
 people had for searching, like King John at Corbridge, and Nero 
 at Carthage, for hidden treasure, where they succeeded no better 
 th\n those two royal money hunters, who got nothing but 
 rubbish for their pains." — Wallis, ii., 15. A singular dungeon 
 tower, in Richmond Castle, Yorks, was cleaned out to a very 
 great depth only a few years ago, with the same object in view 
 and the same success. 
 
 Old Horse Shoes. 
 
 See Lit. Gaz., Dec, 1851. Brocketfs JS T orth. Words, ii., 60. 
 
 To find a horse-shoe is considered lucky. And the said horse- 
 shoe nailed heel upwards upon the door or threshhold of the byre, 
 stable, or dwelling-house of the finder, hinders the power of 
 witches. In daleish districts great numbers are still to be 
 seen so attached. 
 
folklore of the north of england. 63 
 
 Burial at Ceoss-Koads. 
 
 John and Lancelot Younghusband committed suicide 10th 
 November, 1818. "They" (the Younghusbands) "were two 
 respectable and wealthy farmers just adjoining the town of 
 Alnwick. The sensation must be imagined that pervaded the 
 little town of Alnwick, when it was discovered that the brothers 
 had committed suicide at the same time ; consequently must 
 have consulted and agreed to each other's self murder, if not 
 assisted in it. This was the great difficulty with the jury, or 
 they would have returned the usual verdict of temporary 
 insanity. I was from home at the time ; and in fact I heard of 
 the dreadful event at Rothbury, and on my return I found the 
 jury had returned a verdict of felo de se, and that I was called, 
 upon the Coroner's warrant, along with my brother church- 
 wardens and the constables of the parish, to inter the bodies in 
 the public highway. I distinctly recollect that the coroner, 
 Mr. T. A. Russell, told us the law did not require the burial to 
 be at cross-roads. As we wished to spare the feelings of 
 friends, and as a public footpath led through Alnwick church- 
 yard, we thought we fulfilled the requirements of the law by 
 interring the bodies along it, so as not to interfere with con- 
 secrated ground — which was done by making the graves in a 
 direction opposite to the usual method. There they would have 
 remained had not the late Sir David W. Smith sent for the 
 parish officers, and threatened them with a prosecution at the 
 suit of the Crown, if the bodies were not interred according to 
 law in a public road.* It was not till the evening that the 
 parish officers resolved to disinter and re-bury the bodies of the 
 
 * However much this command and threat might hurt the feelings 
 of every relative and friend, still, as the law then stood, every dis- 
 interested and light-minded person must justify Sir David and the 
 other magistrates in the part they acted in the matter. 
 
64 THE DBNHAM TRACTS. 
 
 unfortunate men, and this was carried out, though not exactly 
 at midnight, nor were the graves made at cross-roads. The 
 wish was to have the graves dug at the March between the 
 Duke of Northumberland and Mr. Hewitson's estate at Heckley 
 in a lane, called Hindly lane, leading from Heckley to Eglingham, 
 where the Younghusbands farmed, and perhaps within a quarter 
 of a mile from where the double suicidal act was committed, but 
 the ground was so full of rocks, the gravediggers not being able 
 speedily to accomplish their work, so that we gave directions 
 for them to come further down the lane, which might be four 
 or five hundred yards from the March, but not at a crossing ; 
 there the graves were dug at the side of the road, not where 
 carts and horses travelled. I do not think it was ten o'clock 
 when we returned from the melancholy duty with most 
 distressed minds and harassed feelings.* As the law was 
 shortly afterwards altered so as to allow the bodies of suicides to 
 be interred, in churchyards without ceremony, I really think 
 that this painful circumstance had some influence on our 
 legislators. Mr. William Davidson, chemist and druggist, of 
 Alnwick, was foreman of the jury, and as he takes much 
 interest in local events, and the history of the place, he will 
 be able to supply further information upon this enquiry, 
 which I feel incompetent to do." Private Correspondence, 
 1850. 
 
 It is however said that the bodies did not rest long at the 
 wayside, being removed under the cloud of night, and that they 
 found a third final resting place in the graveyard of Alnwick 
 Church. 
 
 Anciently a stake was driven through the body of a suicide, 
 but in the above instance this act was dispensed with. 
 
 * The burial was witnessed by a vast concourse of people from 
 Alnwick and the surrounding neighbourhood. 
 
FOLKLORE OF THE NORTH OF ENGLAND. 65 
 
 [" Go to Heckley Fence " may have originated from the 
 circumstances above related.] 
 
 Roman Burials. 
 The Romans most generally interred north and south, and 
 occasionally with the head to the south. Numerous double and 
 occasionally treble interments are met with, in which the bodies, 
 singular to say, are reversed ; vulgo, " heads and heels." Many 
 instances of double interments have been met with at Pierse- 
 bridge. 
 
 Sundry Northern Proverbs. 
 
 1. He's a ganger, like Willy Pigg's dick ass. 
 
 2. A bumble kite a spider in't — a bad bargain. 
 
 3. It's a hobbly road, as the man said when he fell over a cow. 
 
 4. Rather better than common, like Nanny Hclmsey's pie. 
 
 5. Changeable weather, quoth Molly Hogg, rain every day. 
 
 6. As great a thief as Billy P — r, who stole the bolt off his own door. 
 
 7. I said nought and I said nought, and still they took hold of my 
 words. 
 
 8. I'll pepper your rams. 
 
 9. The old yow's the better tape. 
 
 10. High-days and holidays and baan-fire neets. 
 
 11. He sticks up his riggin {i.e., the backbone), like a puzzon'd 
 rattan. 
 
 12. To catch Peggy Wiggan. 
 
 13. To use some of Michael Pickering's blacking, i.e., none at all. 
 
 14. As throng as Throp's wife, when she hanged herself with the 
 dishclout. 
 
 15. May Jemmy Johnson squeeze me. 
 
 10. It's sure and sartain, as said Jonathan Martin. 
 
 17. She's ready donn'd, like Willy Ho's (Hall's) dog. 
 
 18. Like Isaac Ebdalc's stockings, they're no fit. 
 111. " A little of both," as Harry Hodgson said. 
 
 20. It's January, like David Pearse's gin. David should have said 
 genuine but nut being, as it would seem, a learned man, he fell into 
 error. 
 
 VOL. II. F 
 
66 the denham tracts. 
 
 Worm in the Tail. 
 
 This is a sort of imaginary disease wonderfully common in 
 horned cattle, to cure which a portion of the end of the animal's 
 tail is cut off in order to make it bleed; but the more general 
 fashion is to make in it a perpendicular incision near to the end 
 and to rub therein a composition of salt, soot, tar, turpentine, 
 and garlick, tightly enveloping all with a rag and cord. 
 
 Butchers as Jurymen. 
 
 The common vulgar error of excluding a butcher from juries, 
 especially in cases of blood, although it may be said to be 
 exploded, is still strongly impressed upon the minds of the lower 
 classes, at least so far as propriety goes. I believe that an 
 ancient law, still standing on the statute book, actually for- 
 bade it. 
 
 Mayden Assize : White Gloves. 
 
 It was formerly the custom to present the judge with a pair 
 of white gloves when no criminals were condemned to be 
 hanged. The use now is to make the offering when there are 
 no prisoners for trial. A pair of gloves also, not many years 
 ago, was the customary offering by a person claiming a reversal 
 of outlawry. Amongst swordsmen, to send or cast the gauntlet, 
 i.e., a glove of mail, was esteemed a challenge of defiance. 
 
 To Bite the Glove or Nails. 
 
 To bite the glove or finger nails in conversation, even with a 
 friend, is still looked upon as ominous of passion or hatred. Sir 
 Walter Scott has a note thereon. See Lay of the Last Minstrel, 
 cant, vi., st. 7. Shakespeare also remarks it as a gesture of 
 contempt. 
 
FOLKLORE OF THE NORTH OF ENGLAND. 67 
 
 The Kissing Bush. 
 
 At York and Newcastle-on-Tyne tliis ancient token of a 
 mirthful and I hope innocent custom is still to be seen at 
 Christmas. The bush is formed of mistletoe, evergreens, rib- 
 bons, and oranges. May its presence continue to be witnessed, 
 not only in the kitchens but also in the entrance hall for cen- 
 turies untold. 
 
 The Petting Stone. 
 
 Marriages celebrated at the Church of Lindisfarne, in Holy 
 Island, are said to be unfortunate if the bride, on making the 
 essay, cannot step the length of it. This stone is supposed to be 
 the pedestal of St. Cuthbert's Cross, anciently held in super- 
 stitious veneration. [In some places the bride, after coming out 
 of the church, was lifted over a stone, called " the petting 
 stone," that she may never take the pet.] 
 
 The Mosstrooper's Grave. 
 
 " From the Lake of Grindon, in Northumberland, a small 
 burn issues and flows about two miles in a westerly course, 
 when it is suddenly lost in a fissure of its rocky passage in the 
 limestone, popularly known as a Swallow-hole. Tradition states 
 that a young mosstrooper, in attempting to rob a farmyard in 
 the neighbourhood, was shot by one of the servants and brought 
 to the lonely Swallow-hole and there buried. Upon this tradi- 
 tion a ballad was founded, which I fear is now lost. I remem- 
 ber it as very pretty. The grave is worthy of its lawless 
 occupant." — Private Correspondence, 1849. 
 
 Selling oneself to the Devil. 
 
 " Tho idea of men and women thus disposing of themselves 
 
 F 2 
 
68 THE DENHAM TRACTS. 
 
 for wealth and power, for a certain term of years, is not yet 
 exploded, in Weardale. At the expiration of the period Satan 
 appears in person, and not only claims the soul, but carries off 
 the body also. It is supposed the victim can be saved by giving 
 the fiend anything black when he appears to him^ as a black 
 hen, black cat, dog, &c. So that it would seem his infernal 
 majesty is either easily satisfied or easily gulled." — Private 
 Correspondence. 
 
 Charm foe Bewitched Cattle. 
 
 An acquaintance of mine, in County Westmeria, had such a 
 singular succession of ill luck among his cattle that his neigh- 
 bours, as well as himself, came to the conclusion that they were 
 bewitched by awde Sally Mackick, who lived at no great dis- 
 tance from the farmstead. An eldern, well versed in these 
 matters, recommended the owner to take the heart of a cow 
 which had died that morning and stick it full of pins, and after- 
 wards plunge it into the midst of a fire made up for the purpose 
 at the dead hour of midnight. All made ready, the heart was 
 dropt into the middle of a huge roaring fire in an awful silence 
 and covered up, when (mirabile diclu) instantly the most awful 
 knock came upon the window, where the work was going for- 
 ward, that the good folks ever heard in their lives, and it was 
 not, as may be supposed, to bid them hasten to their beds. In 
 the morning not a relic of either heart or pins was to be met 
 with . From that period their cattle got almost instantaneously 
 well, and they lost no more for many long years. 
 
 My story, however, ends not here. The supposed witch, after 
 this, to make use of the language of my narrator, " dowed na 
 mair, she dwined away, and did na mair good (evil ?), and 
 nobbnt lived a few weeks, and she's now where the Lord 
 pleases." 
 
folklore of the nokth of england. 69 
 
 Battling Stones. 
 
 These now unused relics of a former period are still numerous 
 throughout the length and breadth of the land, and must remain 
 so, unless they have the ill-luck to meet the fate of the noble 
 Piersebridge specimen, which was blown to fragments by means 
 of gunpowder, by a fellow in the place, a.d. 1826. They were 
 generally found on the margin of a stream, with the upper sur- 
 face inclining towards the water. These stones were used by 
 thrifty housewives some thirty years ago, whereupon to beat, 
 battle, or beetle their home-made linens or huckabacks, which 
 even then pretty generally prevailed for domestic wear. The 
 linen was thrown into the running stream and gradually drawn 
 upon the stone, and there beat with a beetle or battling staff. 
 The Piersebridge stone lay on the north side of Carlebury beck, 
 ii yard or two below the present footbridge. Another stone of 
 this class, but greatly deficient in magnitude, still exists on the 
 Cliffe side of the Tees, with one side in the river. It is on the 
 premises of the George and Dragon Inn, not far from the bridge. 
 I have many times seen it used. It is a granite boulder, as was 
 the other. 
 
 Nursery Rhymes. 
 
 A Supposition. 
 
 As I suppose, and as I suppose, 
 
 The barber shaved the Quaker, 
 And as I suppose, he cut off his nose, 
 
 And lap't it up in a paper. 
 
 Running ok Leaping Rhymes. 
 
 Bi'llasay. Bclhi~ay, what time o' tiny, 
 One o'clock, two o'clock, three and away. 
 
 Varia in second line, '• time to away." BcIIasay is evidently 
 
70 THE DENHAM TRACTS. 
 
 )i corruption of bell-horses. At Wooler, instead of "Bellasay" 
 " coach-horses " is used. 
 
 An auld Wife's End. 
 
 Did ye iwer see an auld wife, 
 
 An auld, auld, auld, wife ; 
 Did ye ivver see an auld wife 
 
 Hung ower a dyke to dry ? 
 The day was het, the wife was fat, 
 
 And she hegan to fry ; 
 So there was an end o' the auld wife, 
 
 Hung ower the dyke to dry ! 
 
 A Mother's saying. 
 
 My son is my son till he gets a wife, 
 
 But my daughter's my daughter all the days of her life. 
 
 Southernwood Ehtmes. 
 
 1. Lads' Iotp, lasses' delight, 
 If t' lads doesn't come 
 The lasses '11 flite. 
 
 2. Lads' love is lasses' delight, 
 And if the lads don't love 
 Lasses will flite [i.e. scold.] 
 
 Charms. 
 Ash-Leaf Charms. 
 
 1 . The even ash-leaf in my left hand, 
 
 The first man I meet shall be my husband. 
 
 2. The even ash-leaf in my glove, 
 
 The first I meet shall be my true love. 
 
FOLKLORE OF THE NOKTH OF ENGLAND. 71 
 
 3. The even ash-leaf in my breast, 
 
 The first man I meet is who I love best. 
 
 4. The even ash-leaf in my hand, 
 The first I meet shall be my man. 
 
 5. Even ash ! Even ash ! I pluck thee, 
 This night my true love for to see ; 
 Neither in his rick, nor in his rear, 
 
 But in the clothes he does every day wear. 
 
 G. An even ash, or four-leaved clover, 
 
 You'll see your true love before the day's over. 
 
 7. The even ash-leaf in my bosom, 
 
 The first T meet shall be my husband. 
 
 8. Find odd-leaved ash, and even-leafed clover, 
 And you'll see your true love afore the day's over. 
 
 9. Even ash, I do thee pluck, 
 Hoping for to have good luck ; 
 
 But if no good luck I get from thee, 
 I wish I'd left thee on the tree. 
 
 Docken or Nettle Rhymes. 
 
 1. Docken in and nettle out 
 Like an awde wife's dishclout. 
 
 2. Out nettle, in dock, 
 
 Dock shall have a new smock ;" 
 But nettle shan't ha' nothin'. 
 
 3. In dock, out nettle sting 
 Nettle sting'd me. 
 
 If thou doesn't cure me 
 I'll kill thee ! 
 
 [Tho rhymes under these two headings have been derived 
 from several sources.] 
 
72 THE DEKHAM TRACTS. 
 
 Folks never catch cold at Chdrch. 
 
 This is a saying very common in the mouths of old people, 
 and is no doubt often an inducement to many to leave their own 
 comfortable homes on a cold, comfortless, (splishy-splashy) * 
 Sabbath morning, and travel a couple of miles or more to attend 
 divine service in one of our doubly-damp country churches, 
 which has turned green internally, not alone from the effects of 
 antiquity, but still more so from the exclusion of a free circula- 
 tion of air, from the afternoon of the previous Sabbath ; where 
 it is too certain numbers have caught colds, which ere long 
 have hurried them prematurely to a grave not much more cold 
 or damp than the church. 
 
 Bowed oh Crooked Sixpence. 
 
 A crooked sixpence worn continuously in the left side pocket 
 is looked upon as indicative of good luck to the wearer. I 
 know a lady whom I have seen turn not less than half a dozen 
 out of her purse at one time. 
 
 " Bowed money appears anciently to have been sent as a 
 token of love and affection from one relation to another.''' — 
 Brand. 
 
 Gun-firing Superstition. 
 
 In the sailors' creed the following article occurs, viz.: — 
 That if a gun is fired over a dead body, lying at the bottom of 
 the sea, the concussion will burst the gall bladder, and, mermaid 
 like, it will ascend to the surface head foremost. 
 
 The belief that on the bursting of the gall bladder a dead 
 creature, be it fish, animal, or human, will rise to the surface 
 of the water, is not peculiar to civilized life ; it is also asserted 
 by the Indians of America. 
 
 * So pronounced in tho north. 
 
FOLKLORE OF THE NOETH OF ENGLAND. 73 
 
 Black Cats and Lovers. 
 
 In a house where a black cat is kept the spinster portion of 
 its population will never lack plenty of sweethearts. 
 
 N.B. — This piece of folk-lore I gleaned from a young lady, 
 who spoke, as she herself told me, not from hearsay information, 
 but practical experience. 
 
 .Rhymes. 
 
 1 . Whenever the cat of the house is black, 
 The lasses of lovers will have no lack. 
 
 2. Kiss the black cat, an' that'll make ye fat ; 
 Kiss yn the white one and that'll make ye lean. 
 
 [It ought to be said that this is a childish off-take of one 
 who is constantly inquiring " What?" and not a piece of folk- 
 lore implying belief. — J. H.] 
 
 Corpse Usages. 
 
 The old use of covering looking-glasses with a white linen 
 cloth in the room wherein a corpse lies still generally prevails. 
 I have thought that this custom was to prevent the image of 
 the dead being reflected in the glass. 
 
 A pewter plate and a handful of salt placed upon the body 
 of the corpse is now but rarely seen. About Bowes a sod 
 (turf) occasionally, however, assumes the duty and place of 
 the salt. The folks say it ia done to prevent the formation of 
 gases of the body. A bowl of water is usually placed beneath 
 tho bed. 
 
 I myself have seen a " stranger in blood " lean over a corpse 
 just previous to removal, and in silence repeat a short prayer. 
 Of the nature of the prayer I am ignorant. 
 
74 the denham tracts. 
 
 Sleek or Calendering Stones. 
 These domestic utensils of olden time are now wholly out of 
 use. Their form has been aptly described as that of a large 
 mushroom reversed, the stalk forming the handle. One, penes 
 me, is formed of common green or bottle glass, in diameter 
 4^ inches, and in height 6£ inches. They are now very 
 rare. 
 
 Cats and Corpses. 
 
 It is a common remark that a cat will not settle in a house 
 with an unburied corpse. I know not how far the truth of this 
 saw may extend ; but this I do know, that on the decease of 
 the writer's maternal parent, the house cat left the dwelling 
 and took to the garden, where, by scratching the earth, she 
 made herself a kind of lair and extended herself therein, like 
 a hare in her form, with her nose partially covered with loose 
 soil. This I noticed on many occasions during the period the 
 body was uninterred. 
 
 Bell-Hokses. 
 
 The last set of bell-horses either seen or heard in the North 
 of England were kept by the late Charles Michell, Esq., (of 
 eccentric memory), of Forest Hall, Richmond. Although it 
 must now be more than 40 years since I last saw those horses, 
 in their handsome trappings, pass through Piersebridge, I can 
 nevertheless fancy I still hear the music of their bells tingling 
 in my ears. These belis were suspended on a wooden frame 
 work, which frame was covered with a parti-coloured worsted 
 fringe. 
 
 The Rev. Mr. Darnell, rector of Stanhope, has in his pos- 
 session a bell of this sort, which is considered a great curiosity. 
 
FOLKLORE OF THE NORTH OF ENGLAND. <0 
 
 It used formerly to be suspended at the neck of the leading 
 horse (proverbially known as the bell-horse) of the trains by 
 which the salters of olden time conveyed their merchandise over 
 the moors of that district. It is very massive, and has a fine 
 harmonious tone. 
 
 Goats. 
 
 It is still a generally received opinion, that one of these 
 animals kept about an inn or farmstead is not only conducive 
 to the health of the other domestic animals, but also brings 
 good luck to the owner. 
 
 On Children. 
 
 It is believed that a child in its first month has a presentiment 
 or foresight of everything that has to befall it through life. If 
 much given to crying, its future life will be one of sorrow, and 
 per contra. Also that if a child's "tooths down-bank" (i.e., 
 has its first teeth in the upper jaw), it won't live long. 
 
 Northern Proverbs. 
 
 1. There's great (v. rare, brave) doings in the North when they 
 Steele (bar) their doors \vi' tayleurs. 
 
 2. There's great stirring in the North when old wives (? witches) 
 ride scout. 
 
 3. Three great evils come out of the North— a cold wind, a cunning 
 knave, and shrinking cloth. 
 
 Cope, a' cope, a bargain, 
 
 Never cope again : 
 
 Two cross sticks 
 
 And a broker, bane (bone). 
 
 The above rhymes (which are headed Legal Oral Contract) 
 are chanted by two children with the little fingers of their right 
 right hands hooked together. The use prevails at Scarborough, 
 
76 THE DENHAH TRACTS. 
 
 and is evidently a .juvenile contract between the parties, that 
 the coping (exchange) of properties which has just taken place 
 shall never be broken by either of them in all future time. It 
 is clearly, I think, of high antiquity. 
 
 [Eing tang the Bottle Bell, A' the leers gangs to Hell.] 
 [Bargain be'd till ye be deed, A bunder' pound if ye rue again.] 
 
 Ber. vars. 
 
 A EOUNDHEAD BHYME. 
 
 Up 'with the rump, 
 And down with the stump, 
 And away with the Presbytereers. 
 
 This triplet is sung or said at Driffield in the East Riding of 
 Yorkshire, on the 29th of May ; and refers us back to the un- 
 happy era of the first Charles ; Oliver Cromwell ; the Rump 
 Parliament; the Roundheads and Cavaliers; and the Inde- 
 pendents and Presbyterians. 
 
 These rhymes I find were used as a political " toasting 
 health " by certain Jacobites. They are noticed in Mr. James 
 Ray's History of the Rebellion of '45-6. York, 1749. 
 
 Ghosts never appear on Christmas Eve ! 
 
 * * * * 
 
 " Some say that ever 'gainst that season comes 
 Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated, 
 The bird of dawning singeth all night long : 
 And then they say no spirit dares stir abroad ; 
 The nights are wholesome ; then no planet strikes, 
 No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm, 
 So hallowed and so gracious is the time." 
 
 Marcellus. 
 
 " So have I heard and do in part believe it." 
 
 * # # # 
 
 Horatio. 
 
FOLKLORE OF THE NORTH OF ENGLAND. 77 
 
 So says the immortal Shakespeare ; and the truth thereof 
 few now-a-days, I hope, will call in question. Grose observes, 
 too, that those born on Christmas Day cannot see spirits ; which 
 is another incontrovertible fact. What a happiness this must 
 have been seventy or eighty years ago and upwards, to those 
 chosen few who had the good luck to be born on the eve of this 
 festival of all festivals ; when the whole earth was so overrun 
 with ghosts, boggles (1), bloody-bones, spirits, demons, ignis 
 fatui, brownies (2), bugbears, black dogs, spectres, shellycoats, 
 scarecrows, witches, wizards, barguests (3), Robin-Goodfellows 
 (4), hags (5), night-bats, scrags, breaknecks, fantasms, hob- 
 goblins, hobhoulards, boggyboes, dobbies (6), hob-thrusts (7), 
 fetches (8), kelpies, warlocks, mock-beggars (9), mum-pokers, 
 Jemmy-burties, urchins, satyrs, pans, fauns, sirens, tritons, 
 centaurs, calcars, nymphs, imps, incubusses, spoorns, men-ixi- 
 the-oak, hell-wains, fire-drakes, kit-a-can-stiuks, Tom-tumblers, 
 melch-dicks, larrs, kitty-witches, hobby-lanthorns, Dick-a- 
 
 1. Boggle-honse, parish of Sedgefield. Bcllingham Boggle-Hole, 
 Novthd. [Bogle-houses in Lowick Forest, Northumberland.] 
 
 2. There is also a river of this name in the Bishopric of Durham. 
 Also at York is Browncy Dike, a portion of the Foss. 
 
 3. Tho York Barguest. See Memoirs of Ji. Surtees, Esq. ; new 
 ed., p. 80, 1852. 
 
 4. This merry fay acted the part of fool or jester, at the court of 
 Oberon, the fairy monarch. 
 
 5. Hag-House. A farmstead near Brancepeth. 
 C. The Mortham Dobby. A Tcesdale goblin. 
 
 7. Hob-o-t'-Hursts, i.e. spirits of the woods. Hohthrush Rook, 
 Farndale, Yorkshire. 
 
 S. The spirit or double of a dying person. 
 
 9. Mock-beggar Hall. Of houses, rocks, etc., bearing this name 
 we meet with many instances. 
 
« THE DENHAM TRACTS. 
 
 Tuesdays, Elf-fires, Gyl-burnt-tails, knockers, elves (10), raw- 
 heads, Meg-with-the-wads, old-shocks, ouphs, pad-fooits, pixies, 
 pictrees (11), giants, dwafs, Tom-pokers, tutgots, snapdragons, 
 sprets, spunks, conjurers, thurses, spurns, tantarrabobs, swaithes, 
 (12), tints, tod-lowries, Jaek-in-the-Wads, mormos, changelings, 
 redcaps, yeth-hounds, colt-pixies, Tom-thumbs, black-bugs, 
 boggarts, scar-bugs, shag-foals, hodge-pochers, hob-thrushes, 
 bugs, bull-beggars, bygorns, bolls, caddies, bomen, brags, 
 wraithes (13), waffs (14), flay -boggarts, fiends, gallytrots, 
 imps, gytrashes, patches, hob-and-lanthorns, gringes, boguests, 
 bonelesses, Peg-powlers (15), pucks, fays, kidnappers, gaily - 
 beggars, hudskins, nickers, madcaps, trolls, robinets, friars' 
 lanthorns, silkies (16), cauld-lads (17), death-hearses, goblins 
 (18), hob-headlesses (19), buggaboes, kows (20), or cowes, 
 nickies, nacks, [necksj waiths (21), miffies, buckies, gholes, 
 sylphs, guests, swarths, freiths, freits, gy-carlins [Gyre-carling] 
 
 10. Elf-Hills, parish of Hutton-in-the-Forest, Cumberland. Elf- 
 How, parish of Kendal. Elf-Hills, near Cambo. 
 
 11. There is a village of this name near Chester-le-Street ; and 
 singular enough a ghost story, called the " Picktree Bragg," is 
 attached to it. See Keightley's Fairy Mythology, Bohn's ed. p. 310. 
 
 12. 13, 14, 21, 23, 27. The same with note 8. 
 
 , 15. This oulde ladye is the evil goddess of the Tees. I also meet 
 with a Nanny Powler, at Darlington, who from the identity of their 
 sirnames, is, I judge, a sister, or it may be a daughter of Peg's. 
 Nanny Powler, aforesaid, haunts the Skerne, a tributary of the Tees. 
 
 16. The Heddon Silky, and Silky's Brig, near Heddon. See 
 Bichardson's Table Book, Leg. Div., vol. ii., p. 181. 
 
 17. Occasionally, we may hear Cowed, or rather Cowd Lad. The 
 meaning, however, is the same ; Cowd being a variation of the more 
 refined word, cold. 
 
 18. Goblin Field, near Mold, Flintshire. 
 
 19. Hub-Cross-Hill. A place near Doncaster. 
 
 20. " The Hedley Kow," a Northumberland ghost story. 
 
FOLKLORE OF THE NORTH OF ENGLAND. 7[ 
 
 pigmies, chittifaces, nixies (22), Jinny-burnt-tails, dudmen 
 hell-hounds, dopple-gangers (23), boggleboes, bogies, redmen 
 portunes, grants, hobbit3, hobgoblins, brown-men (24), cowies 
 dunnies (25), wirrikows (26), alholcles, mannikins, follets 
 koiTeds, lubberkins, cluricauns, kobolds, leprechauns, kors 
 mares, korreds, puckles, korigans, sylvans, succubuses, black- 
 men, shadows, banshees, lian-hanshees, clabbernappers, Gabriel- 
 hounds, mawkins, doubles (27), corpse lights or candles, scrats, 
 mahounds, trows, gnomes, sprites, fates, fiends, sybils, nick- 
 nevins (28), white women, fairies (29), thrummy-caps (30), 
 
 22. " Know you fhe nixies, gay and fair ? 
 
 Their eyes are black, and green their hair, 
 They lurk in sedgy waters." 
 
 Keightley. 
 
 24. See ghost story of the " Brown Man of the Moor." Richard- 
 son's Table Book. 
 
 25. The Hazelrigg Dunny. An excellent Northumberland ghost 
 
 story. 
 
 26. " Frae gudame's mouth auld warld tale they hear, 
 0' warlocks louping round the wirriknow." 
 
 The works of Robt. Fergusson, ed. by A. B. Grossart, Edin., 1851, 
 p. Gl. 
 
 Mr. Maxwell uses worrikow as the name of a ghost in his Border 
 Sketches. From the honour paid to him, according to the above 
 couplet, he appears to have been a sort of master hobgoblin. 
 
 28. Mother witches. 
 
 29. Fairy Dean, two miles above Melrose. Fairy Stone, near 
 Foiirstones, in the parish of Warden, Northumberland. This stone, 
 in which is a secret cavity, has attained a celebrity in history owing 
 to the letters being placed therein, to and from the unfortunate Earl 
 of Derwentwatcr, during the '15. 
 
 30. Thrummy Hills, near Catterick. The name of this sprite is 
 met with in the Fairy tales of Northumberland. 
 
80 THE DENHAM TKACTS. 
 
 cutties (31), and nisses, and apparitions of every shape, make, 
 form, fashion, kind and description, that there was not a village 
 in England that had not its own peculiar ghost. Nay, every 
 lone tenement, castle, or mansion-house, which could boast of 
 any antiquity had its bogle, its spectre, or its knocker. The 
 churches, churchyards, and cross-roads, were all haunted. 
 Every green lane had its boulder-stone on which an apparition 
 kept watch at night. Every common had its circle of fairies 
 belonging to it. And there was scarcely a shepherd to be met 
 with who had not seen a spirit ! [See Lit. Gaz. for December, 
 1848, p. 849.] 
 
 31. These are a certain class of female Boggles, not altogether 
 peculiar to Scotland, who wore their lower robes, at least, a-la-bloomer. 
 They are named by Burns, in his inimitable poem Tam-o'-Shanter. 
 Mr. Halliwell gives the word as localized in Somersetshire. 
 
IX. 
 
 A. FEW POPULAE RHYMES, PROVERBS, AND SAYINGS 
 RELATING TO FAIRIES, WITCHES, AND GIPSIES. 
 
 " Fairies, black, grey, green and white." 
 
 Shakespeare. 
 
 Where the scythe cuts and the sock rives, 
 No more fairies and bee-bikes. 
 
 Vervain and dill, 
 
 Hinder[s] witches from their will. 
 
 Aubrey's Miscellanies, p. 147. 
 
 If your whipsticks made of rowan, 
 You may ride your nag thro' ony town. 
 
 Much about a pitch, 
 
 Quoth the ilevil to the witch. 
 
 Much about much, as the deil said to the witch. — Scots 
 version. 
 
 A hairy man's a geary man ; 
 But a hairy wife's a witch. 
 
 Woe to the lad, 
 
 Without a rownn tree gad. 
 
 Some readings give " With a," etc. 
 
 A witch-wife and an evil, 
 Is three halfpence worse than the deoril. 
 VOL. II. G 
 
82 THE DENHAM TRACTS. 
 
 Hey-how for Hallow-e'en, 
 When all the witches are to be seen, 
 Some in black and some in green, 
 Hey-how for Hallow e'en. 
 
 Thout ! tout ! ! a tout tout ! ! ! 
 Throughout and about. 
 
 The cry of the Somersetshire witches, when on their aerial 
 travels by night.* " 
 
 Cummer goe ye before, cummer goe ye, 
 Gif ye will not goe before, cummer let me.| 
 
 The above verses are said to have been the words of a song 
 sung at North Berwick, in Lothian, accompanied by the music 
 of a Jew's harp or trump, which was played by Geilles Duncan, 
 a servant-girl, before two hundred witches, who joined hands 
 in a short daunce or reel, singing these lines all the while with 
 one voice. 
 
 Witchy, witcby, I defy thee ! 
 Four fingers round my thumb, 
 Let me go quietly by thee ! ! 
 
 The anti-witch rhyme used in Teesdale some sixty or seventy 
 years ago. 
 
 Black-luggie, lammer-bead, 
 Rowan tree, and reed thread, 
 Put the witches to their speed. 
 
 The meaning of black-luggie, I know not. [A small wooden 
 vessel made of staves, ono of which projects as a handle.] 
 
 * This is a sort of freebooting cry. 
 f Cummer. A gossip, a young girl. 
 
POPULAR RHYMES, ETC., RELATING TO FAIRIES. 83 
 
 Lammcr-bead — a coruption of amber-bead. Such beads are 
 still worn by a few old people in Scotland, as a preservation 
 against a variety of diseases, especially asthma, dropsy, and 
 tooth-ache. They also preserve the wearer from the effects of 
 witchcraft, as stated in the text. I have seen a twig of rowan- 
 tree, witchwood, quickbane [i.e. quickbeam from cwic, alive 
 and beam a tree], wild-ash, witchbane, royne-tree, mountain 
 ash, wicken-tree, wicky, wiggy, witchen, whitty, royan, roun 
 or ran-tree ; also called wiggan, witty,' wiggin, witch-hazel, 
 roden, quicken, or roan-tree, * which had been gathered on the 
 2nd of May [observe this], wound round with some dozens of 
 yards of reed threed, i.e., red threed, placed visibly in the 
 window, to act as a charm in keeping witches and boggleboes 
 from the house. So also wo have : — 
 
 Rowan ash and reed threed 
 Keep the devils fra' their speed. 
 
 Ye brade o' witches, ye can do no good to yourself. 
 
 Fair they come, fair they go, and always their heels behind them. 
 
 Neither so sinful as to sink, nor so godly as to swim. 
 
 Falser than Waghorn (Wagner), and he was nineteen times falser 
 than tbe devil. 
 
 Ingratitude is worse than witchcraft. 
 
 Ye're as mitch as half a witch. 
 
 To milk the tether (i.e., the cow-tie). 
 
 To cany off the milk from any one's cow, by milking a hair- 
 tether. A piece of superstition once prevalent in Scotland 
 — (equally well known in the North of England). 
 
 Go in God's name, so you ride no witches. 
 
 Rynt (arroint) you, witch, quoth Bess Lockit to her mother. 
 
 * To this list may be added Hicken. 
 G 2 
 
84 THE DENHAM TRACTS. 
 
 They that burn you for a witch lose all their coals. 
 
 Never talk of witches on a Friday. 
 
 Ye're ower aude ffarrand to be fraid o' witches. 
 
 Witches are most apt to confess on a Friday. 
 
 Friday is the witches' Sabbath. 
 
 To hug one, as the devil hugs a witch. 
 
 Laughs like a pixy (i.e. fairy). 
 
 Laughing like pixies. — Devonshire proverb, Athenaeum, 
 1846, p. 1092. 
 
 As black (*} as "j 
 
 As cross as I 
 
 As ugly as } a witch - 
 
 As sinful as J 
 
 Four fingers and a thumb, witch, I defy thee ! 
 
 Waters locked ! Waters locked ! ! 
 
 A favourite cry of fairies. 
 
 Borram ! Borram!! Borram!!! 
 
 The cry of the Irish fairies, after mounting their steeds, 
 parallel with the Scottish cry, — 
 
 Horse ! Horse !! and Hattock !!! f 
 
 Ye're like a witch, ye say your prayers backward. 
 
 So many gipsies so many smiths. 
 
 The gipsies are all akin. 
 
 To live in the land of the Fair family. 
 
 A Welsh fairy saying. 
 
 * Witches were of two kinds, black and white. The former were 
 looked upon as the most dangerous and devilish. 
 
 f This cry and the one immediately preceding are also of the 
 ravins' or frebooting class. 
 
POPL'LAR RHYMES, ETC., RELATING TO FAIRIES. 85 
 
 God grant that the sweet * fairies may put money in your shoes and 
 sweep your house clean. 
 
 One of the good wishes of the olden time. 
 
 Ho who finds a piece of money will always find another in the same 
 place, as long as he keeps it a secret. 
 
 Fairies comb goats' beards every Friday. 
 
 Its going on like Stokepitch's can. 
 
 A pixy saying, used in Devonshire. The family of Stokes- 
 pitch or Sukespic, resided near Topsham ; and a barrel of ale in 
 their cellar had for many years continued to run freely without 
 being exhausted. It was considered a valuable heirloom, and 
 was valued accordingly, until a curious maid servant took out 
 the bung to ascertain the cause of this extraordinary power. On 
 looking into the cask she found it full of cobwebs ; but the 
 Pixies, it would appear, were offended, for on turning the cock, 
 as usual, the ale had ceased to flow ! 
 
 The common reply at Topsham to the inquiry how any affair 
 went on was, " Its going on," &c, i.e., it was proceeding pros- 
 perously. 
 
 You're half a witch, i.e., very cunning. 
 To laugh like Robin Goodfellow. t 
 Buzz! Buzz !! Buzz!!! 
 
 In the middle of tli9 sixteenth century if a person waved his 
 hat or bonnet in the air and cried Buzz ! three times, under the 
 belief that by this act he would take away the life of another, 
 
 * (Swot, qy. swairt, dark, tawny, swarthy. 
 
 f This merry fay acted the part of fool or jester in the court of 
 Olicron, the Fairy King. And if we may believe Gervase of Tilbury, 
 liobin was the offspring of a proper young wench by a hee-fayrie, a 
 king or something of that kind among them. 
 
86 THE DENHAM TEACTS. 
 
 the old law and lawmakers considered the person so saying and 
 acting to be worthy of death, he being a murderer in intent and 
 having dealings with witches. 
 
 T wish I was a far from God as my nails are from dirt. 
 A witches prayer whilst she was in the act of cleaning her 
 nails. 
 
 All my losses and crosses go alongst the door. 
 
 Wednesday is the fairies' sabbath or holiday. 
 
 She's like a witch, scratch till the blood come, and she cannot hurt 
 you. 
 
 A witch is afraid of her own blood. 
 
 A Pendle Forest witch. 
 
 A Lancashire witch. 
 
 A witch cannot greet, i.e., weep. 
 
 One of the Faw gang. 
 
 Worse than the Faw gang. 
 
 The Faws are a species of gipsies. It is supposed that they 
 acquired this appellation from Johnnie Faw, Lord and Earl of 
 Little Egypt, with whom James TV. and Queen Mary saw not 
 only the propriety, but also necessity, of entering into special 
 treaty. 
 
 Francis Heron, King of the Faws, bur. [Jarrow] 13 January 
 1756. — Sharp's Chron. Mir. 
 
 To laugh like old Bogie. 
 
 He caps Bogie. 
 
 Amplified to — 
 
 He caps Bogie, bogie capt Redcap, and Redcap capt Old Nick. 
 
 To be hag [or witch] ridden. 
 
 See Tel tor's Tales and Ballads. "Witches of Birtlcy ; a 
 
POPULAR RHYMES, ETC., RELATING TO FAIRIES. 87 
 
 Northumberland Tradition." London. 1852. — Keightley's Fairy 
 Mythology, p. 332. London. 1850. 
 
 Nightmare. A spirit or hag of the night. 
 To play the Puck. 
 
 An Irish saying parallel with the English. To play the 
 deuce or devil. — Keightley's Fairy Mythology. 
 
 Has got into Lob's pound [or pond]. 
 
 That is into the fairy pinfold. Ibid. 
 
 Pinch like a fairy. 
 
 " Pinch them, arms, legs, backs, shoulders, sides, and shins." — 
 Merry Wives of Windsor. 
 
 He's got Piggwiggan, vulgo Peggy Wiggan. 
 
 A severe fall or somerset is so termed in the Bishopric. 
 The fairy Pigwiggan is celebrated by Drayton in his 
 Nymphidia. 
 
 To be fairy struck. 
 
 The paralysis is, or rather perhaps was, so called. — Fairy 
 Mythology. 
 
 There never has been a merry world since the Phynodderee lost his 
 ground. 
 
 A Manx fairy saying. See Train's Isle of Man, ii. p. 148 ; 
 Popular Rhymes, etc., of the Isle of Man, pp. 16-17. 
 
 To be pixey led. 
 
 " When a man has got a wee drap ower muckle whusky, 
 misses his way homo, and gets miles out of his direct course, he 
 tolls a tale of excuse, and whiles lays the blame on the innocent 
 pixies." — See Fairy Mythology, p. 300. 
 
88 THE DENHAM TEACTS. 
 
 The fairies lanthorn. 
 That is the glowworm. 
 
 God speed you, gentlemen. 
 
 When an Irish peasant sees a cloud of dust sweeping along 
 the road, he raises his hat and breathes forth the above blessing 
 in behoof of the company of invisible fairies whom he believes 
 to have caused it. — Ibid., pp. 363-4. 
 
 The Phooka have dirtied the blackberries. 
 
 Ibid. Said when the fruit of the bramble is spoilt through 
 age at the end of the season. In the North of England we say, 
 The Devil has set his foot on the bumblekites. 
 
 Fairy, fairy, bake me a bannock and roast me a collop, 
 And I'll give ye a spurtle affmy gad end. 
 
 Spoken three times by the Clydesdale peasant when plough- 
 ing, under, the impression that on his getting to the end of the 
 fourth furrow those good tilings will be spread forth on the 
 grass.— Chambers' Popular Rhymes, Scotland, 3rd ed., p. 106. 
 
 Turn your clokes (coats) 
 For fairy folkes 
 Are in old okes. 
 
 [" Now the pixeys work is done, 
 
 We take our clothes and off we run." 
 
 Devonshire, Athenmim, 1846, p. 1092.] 
 
 I well remember that on more occasions than one, when a 
 schoolboy, I have turned and worn my coat inside out in 
 passing through a wood in order to avoid the good people. On 
 " Nutting Days "—those glorious red-letter days in the school- 
 boy's calendar— the use pretly generally prevailed. The rhymes 
 in the text are the English formula,— Sec Keightley,^. 29]l300. 
 
POPULAR EHYMES, ETC., RELATING TO FAIRIES. 89 
 
 [Children in Scotland blacken marbles, which they then 
 call witches, imagining that these are not so readily struck 
 when played at. They also invoke the witch when their play- 
 fellow aims his marble, by spitting between him and the mark 
 saying, 
 
 " Black witch before your nose, 
 Paddy (Paddock) pit ye oot."] 
 
X. 
 
 PEOVERBIAL RHYMES AND SAYINGS FOR 
 CHRISTMAS AND THE NEW YEAR. 
 
 Christmas. 
 
 " A merry Christmas, a happy New Year, and a jovial Handsel 
 Monday." 
 
 A black Christmas makes a fat churchyard. 
 
 If the ice will bear a goose before Christmas, it will not bear a duck 
 afterwards. 
 
 The twelve days of Christmas. 
 
 As dark as a Yule midnight. 
 
 Every day's no Yule day — cast the cat a castock. 
 
 That is a cabbage stalk, and the proverb means much the 
 same thing as " Spare no expense, bring another bottle of small 
 beer ! " 
 
 Yule I Yule ! a pack of new cards and a Christmas fule. 
 
 Some readings give stule, i.e. stool, in place of " fule." 
 Aubrey says it was sung in the West Riding of Yorkshire when 
 the Yule log was brought in. 
 
 A green Yule makes a fat kirk-yard. 
 
 Big as a Christmas pig ! 
 
 It's good to cry Yule ai another man's cost. 
 
PROVERBIAL RHYMES AND SAYINGS FOR CHRISTMAS. 91 
 
 As many mince pies as yon taste at Christmas, so many happy 
 months you will have. 
 
 A trite observation, general through the whole of Westmore- 
 land and Cumberland, counties celebrated for their extreme 
 hospitality. There is an ancient custom at Piddle-Hinton, Dor- 
 setshire, for the rector to give away on old Christmas day, 
 annually, a pound of bread, a pint of ale, and a mince pie, to 
 every poor person in the parish. This distribution is regularly 
 made by the rector to upwards of three hundred persons. — 
 Charity Commissioners' Report, vol. xxix. p. 108. 
 
 A windy Christmas is a sign of a good year. 
 As bare as a birch at Yule even. 
 
 In allusion to the Christmas log. It is spoken of one in 
 extreme poverty. [This does not concern the Christmas log. 
 Birches are denuded of their foliage long before Christmas, 
 hence Laidlaw's fine lines : 
 
 " "Twas when the wan leaf frae the birk tree was fa'in, 
 And Martinmas dowie had wound up the year." 
 
 A birch-wood in winter, with its multiplicity of dark twigs, is 
 extremely bare.] 
 
 A Yule feast may bo quit at Pasche, 
 
 i.e., a Christmas feast may be paid again at Easter, or, " one 
 good turn deserves another." 
 
 Christmas comes but once a year. 
 
 Ghosts never appear on Christmas eve. 
 
 Shakespeare attests to the truthfulness of this old saw. 
 
 Busy as an English oven at Christmas. 
 Cnld as Christmas. 
 
92 THE DENHAM TRACTS. 
 
 A kiss at Christmas and an egg at Easter. 
 They talk of Christmas so long that it comes. 
 Yule is good on Yule even. 
 After a Christmas comes a Lent. 
 
 In other words, " After a feast comes a famine." 
 
 A jolly wassail bowl. 
 
 A winter council, a careful Christmas, and a bloody Lent. 
 
 Nixon's Cheshire Proph. 
 
 I'll bring your Yule belt to the Beltane bore. 
 
 Scots. 
 
 A light Christmas, a heavy sheaf. 
 
 She simpers like a frummetty kettle at Christmas. 
 
 One of the dark days before Christmas. 
 
 Now's now, but Yule's in winter. 
 
 The year lasts longer than Yule. 
 
 The day of St. Thomas, the blessed divine, 
 
 Is good for brewing, baking, and killing fat swine. 
 
 The 21st December. This too is the shortest day, and the 
 commencement of the winter quarter. It is likewise the first 
 day of the festival of all festivals — Christmas — which anciently 
 continued without intermission from this day to the second of 
 February, the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin 
 Mary; but Christmas day and the twelve days succeeding were 
 considered the most sacred to mirth and hospitality ; hence the 
 proverbial phrase, " The twelve daj-s of Christmas." A custom, 
 I believe, still exists in some parts of England of ringing a 
 merry peal upon the bells of the parish steeple on this day. It 
 is called " Ringing in Christmas." While speaking of bell- 
 ringing at this festival, I may as well here observe that a 
 practice of considerable antiquity still exists at Dewsbury, 
 
PROVERBIAL RHYMES AND SAYINGS FOR CHRISTMAS. 93 
 
 Yorkshire, which consists in ringing the great bell of the 
 church at midnight on Christmas eve. This knell is called the 
 Devil's Passing Bell. The bell is tolled in the manner of a 
 funeral or passing bell. The moral of it is that the devil died 
 when Christ was born. This use was discontinued for many 
 years, but was revived by the vicar in 1828. — ■ Collect. Topograph. , 
 vol. i. p. 167. The Eev. Ant. Sterry, vicar of Lidney, gave by 
 deed, in the fortieth of Queen Elizabeth, the sum of five 
 shillings per annum, payable out of an estate called the Clasp 
 in this parish (Ruardean, Gloucestershire), for ringing a peal on 
 Christmas eve, about midnight, for two hours, in commemora- 
 tion of the Nativity. The money is still received and applied 
 as directed. — Char. Com. Rep., vol. xix. p. 10j. 
 
 St. Thomas's day is past and gone, 
 And Christmas is most acorns. 
 
 Maidens arise, 
 
 And bake your pies, 
 An save poor tailor Bobby some. 
 
 Halliwell's Nursery Rhymes, 4th ed., p. 220. 
 
 Bouncer, Buckler, velvet's dear, 
 And Christmas comes but once a year, 
 Though when it comes it brings god cheer, 
 So farewell Christmas once a year. 
 
 Varia : Bounce, Buckram, velvet's dear, 
 
 Christmas comes but once a year, 
 And when it comes it brings good cheer, 
 But when it's gone it's never the near. 
 
 Sec note on these rhymes, Halliwell's Rhyme*, 4th ed., p. 4-1. 
 
 He's a i'ule that marries at Yule, 
 For when the bairn's to bear 
 The corn's to shear. 
 
94 THE DENHAM TRACTS. 
 
 A meet companion for the following : — 
 
 He who marries between the syckle and the scythe, will never 
 thrive. 
 
 Perhaps the latter proverb was more strictly true when our 
 forefathers devoted a whole month in which to celebrate their 
 nuptials, to the entire neglect of all other matters. The former 
 still holds good with agricultural labourers at the present 
 moment. 
 
 Make we mirth for Christ's birth, 
 And sing we Yulo till Candlemas. 
 
 It's good crying Yule ! 
 On another man's stool. 
 
 If Christmas day on a Monday fall, 
 A troublous winter we shall have all. 
 
 Yule ! Yule ! Yule ! Yule ! 
 Three puddings in a pule (pool), 
 Crack nuts and cry Yule ! 
 
 This was, some fifty years ago, a common cry in the counties 
 of York and Durham, on the night of Christmas day ; but what 
 the three puddings in a pule are intended to typify I have 
 never been able to discover, unless it be three plum puddings 
 on a ponderous pewter dish, floating, as it were, in a pule of 
 sweetened rum sauce ! The ■ command to crack nuts may be 
 inferred from the following extract from a Christmas carol, 
 given at the end of old George Withers' " Juvenilia " : — 
 
 Hark how the wagges abrode doe call 
 
 Each other foorth to rambling; 
 Anon, yon'l see them in the hall, 
 
 For nuts and apples scamhling. 
 
 The cry of " Yule, Yule, Yule ! " used anciently to be made 
 
PROVERBIAL RHYMES AND SAYINGS FOR CHRISTMAS. 95 
 
 in our northern churches after service on Christmas day, the 
 people at the same time dancing to the words. — See Glosso- 
 graphia, ed. 1681, p. 692. 
 
 Hogmanay, trollolay; 
 
 Give us some of your white bread, 
 
 But none of your grey. 
 
 Hagmena, Hagmena ; 
 Give us bread and cheese, 
 And let us away. 
 
 This and the preceding partake more of the quality of cries 
 or chansons than proverbs. They were sung or said by 
 children on the last day of the year, when collecting their farls, 
 as they named it, of oaten cake and cheese. — See Gentleman's 
 Magazine, vol. Is. p. 499. 
 
 Blessed be St. Steven, 
 There's no fasting on his even. 
 
 The eve of this day is Christmas day, and the rhymes are 
 happily expressive of the good eating and great doings at this 
 festive season. 
 
 Oh ! dirty December: 
 But Christmas remember ! 
 
 Yule is young on Yule even, 
 And old on St. Steven. 
 
 ■When Yule comes, dule comes, 
 
 Could feet and legs ; 
 When Pasche comes, grace comes, 
 
 Butter, milk, and eggs. 
 
 Chambers's Popular Rhymes, Scotland. 
 
 At Christmas play, and make good cheer, 
 For Christmas comes but once a year. 
 
itfi THE DENHAM TKACTS. 
 
 Martinmas is past and gone, 
 
 Christmas in drawing near, 
 There's no a piece mutton in a' the house 
 
 To serve out for Christmas cheer. 
 
 Wooler, Northumberland. 
 
 Between Martinmas and Yule, 
 Water's worth wine in any pule. 
 
 Yule is come, and Yule is gon"e, 
 
 And we have feasted weel ; 
 So Jack must to his flail again, 
 
 And Jenny to her wheel. 
 
 The following stanzas are the only now remaining fragments 
 of the Hagmena Song, as sung by the pinder of the borough 
 of Richmond, in com. Ebor : — 
 
 To-night it is the New Year's eve, to-morrow is the day, 
 And we are come for our right, and for our ray, 
 As we used to do in Old King Henry's day. 
 
 Sing, fellows, sing ! Hagman heigh ! 
 
 If you go to the bacon-flick, cut me a good bit ; 
 Cut, cut, and high, beware of your bra? ; 
 Cut, cut, and low, beware of your maw ; 
 Cut, cut, and round, beware of your thoom, — 
 That me and my merry men may (have some).* 
 Sing, fellows, sing ! Hagman heigh ! 
 
 If you go to the black-ark, j" bring me out x mark, 
 Ten mark, x pound, throw it down upon the ground, 
 That me and my merry men may (hare some) — 
 Sing, fellows, sing ! Hagman heigh ! 
 
 * These two words are omitted in the copy taken down from the 
 recitation of old master Craven, tho ju'nder of the borough. 
 
 | The black ark was a ponderous piece of oaken furniture about six 
 
PROVERBIAL RHYMES AND SAYINGS FOR CHRISTMAS. 97 
 
 The dish- clout hangs upon a pin, 
 Rise maids and let us in : 
 Be she maid or be she nane, 
 If she comes she must be ta'en.* 
 
 Sing, fellows, sing ! Hagman heigh ! 
 
 *„* Permit me to suggest the following additional stanza to the 
 notice of the jolly old Pinder of Richmond, should he be spared 
 to sing this song at the commencement of another year. I fancy 
 it would chime in tolerably after verse two : — 
 
 Then gang to your aumbric if you please, 
 And fetch us here some bread and cheese ; 
 Next bring us out an old whetstane, 
 And we'll sharpen our whittles every ane, 
 That me and my merry men may have some. 
 
 Sing, fellows, sing ! Hagman heigh ! 
 
 feet in length and three in depth ; the inside was usually divided into 
 two parts. Occasionally they had false bottoms. These kists are 
 often to be met with in the dwellings of ancient housekeepers beauti- 
 fully carved, bearing the initials of the first owner and the date of 
 the construction. Their original use was that of holding linen, clothes, 
 and various other items of still higher value, as implied in the text. 
 They are now generally devoted to the purpose of holding flour and 
 bread meal. In Westmoreland they are often used as repositories for 
 haver cakes. 
 
 There is an old proverb which says, " The muck-midden is the 
 mother of the meal-ark ; " and it is one, too, which altereth not with 
 time. 
 
 In the will of Bernard Gilpin, 1582, the testator leaves to the 
 " poore of Houghton p'ishe, the greater new ark for come, standin 
 in the hall to p'vide them grotes in winter." 
 
 * Evidently a spurious verse, and belonging to another song, or 
 rather erased, ,SVc my reply to Steddy, letter first, pp. 1, 2. 
 VOL. II. H 
 
98 THE DENHAM TRACTS. 
 
 " Merry men," anciently written " merrie men," is a term of 
 frequent occurrence in the early songs and ballads of the North ; 
 its meaning as here used is true, faithful, &c. The- word is 
 applied characteristically to Wakefield and Carlisle. On the word 
 " ray," used in the first verse, I may observe that it evidently 
 alludes to a sort of cloth woven in party-coloured stripes. The 
 richer clothes of this hind had streaks of gold and silver. 
 
 And everych of them a good mantell 
 Of scarlet and of raye. — Robin Hood. 
 
 See an ancient specimen of the Hagmena Song in Mr. Wright's 
 Songs and Carols of the Fifteenth Century. Printed for the Percy 
 Society, Oct. 1847, p. 63. 
 
 Yf Christmas day on the Saterday falle, 
 That winter ys to be dredden alle ; 
 Hyt shalbe so full of grete tempeste, 
 That hyt shall sle hothe man and beste ; 
 Frnte and corne shall fayle grete won, 
 And olden folkes dyen many on. 
 Whate woman that day of chylde travayle, 
 They shalbe borne in grete perelle ; 
 And chyldren that be born that day, 
 Within halfe a yere they shall dye, par fay. 
 The somer than shall wete ryghte ylle, 
 Yf thou awghte stele, hyt shal the spylle ; 
 Tho dyest yf sekenes take the. 
 
 The seventh and last stanza of a Christmas song of the 
 fifteenth century. [Excerpit from MS. Harl, No. 2252, 
 fol. 154 i\] 
 
 New Year's Tide. 
 
 A happy New Fear and a merry (or jovial) Handsel Monday. 
 Handsel Monday is the first Monday in the New Year. 
 
 Praise we the Lord that hath no peer, 
 And thank wo him for this New Year. 
 
PROVERBIAL RHYMES AXD SAYINGS FOR CHRISTMAS. 99 
 
 If New Year's eve niglit wind blow south, 
 
 If betokeneth warmth and growth : 
 
 If west, much milk and fish in the sea; 
 
 If north, much cold and storms there will be ; 
 
 If east, the trees will bear much fruit ; 
 
 If north-east, flee it man and brute. 
 
 In Sir John Sinclair's Stat. Acct. of Scotland, Edin., 1794, 
 8vo. vol. xii, p. 458, the minister of Kirkmichael, in county. 
 Banff, under the head of " Superstitions," etc., communicates : 
 On the first night in January they observe with anxious 
 attention the disposition of the atmosphere. Their faith in these 
 signs is couched in verses which may be thus translated : 
 
 The wind of the south will be productive of heat and fertility. 
 The wind of the west of milk and fish. 
 The wind of the north of cold and storm. 
 The wind from the east of fruit on the trees. 
 
 The Highlanders on New Year's day burn juniper before 
 their cattle. 
 
 At New Year's tide, 
 
 The days lengthen a cock's stride. 
 
 This saying is intended to express the lengthening of the 
 days in a small but perceptible degree. The countryman well 
 knows the truth of what ho says from observing where the 
 shadow of the upper lintel of the door falls at twelve o'clock, 
 and there making a mark. At New Year's day, the sun at the 
 meridian being higher, its shadow comes nearer the door by 
 four or five inches, which, for rhyme's sake, is called " a cock's 
 stride," and so expresses the sensible increase of the day. — 
 Gent. Mag., 1759. 
 
 ii 2 
 
XI. 
 
 A FEW RHYMES IN CONNECTION WITH THE MONTHS 
 OF THE YEAR AND DAYS OF THE WEEK. 
 
 Memorial Lines oh the Months. 
 
 1. Thirty days hath September, 
 April, June, and November, 
 February hath twenty-eight alone, 
 And all the rest have thirty-and-one, 
 Unless that leap year doth combine, 
 And give to February twenty-nine. 
 
 Young Man's Companion, 1 703 
 
 2. Thirty days hath fruit-bearing September, 
 Moist April, hot June, and cold November, 
 Short February twenty-eight alone ; 
 
 The other months have either thirty-one ; 
 And February, when the fourth year's run, 
 Does gain a day from the swift-moving sun. 
 
 Shepherd's Kalendar; or Countryman's 
 Daily Companion. 
 
 3. Thirtie days hath September, 
 April, June, and November ; 
 
 The rest have thirtie-and-one, 
 
 Save February alone, 
 Which monthe hath but eight-and-twenty meere ; 
 Save when it is bissextile, or leap yeare. 
 
 Coiicordancy of Yeares, A. Hopton, 1615, p. 60. 
 
RHYMES IN CONNECTION WITH THE MONTHS OF THE YEAR. 101 
 
 4. Thirty dayes hath November, 
 April, June, and September ; 
 February hath xxvm alone, 
 And all the rest hare xxxi. 
 
 Grafton's Chronicle, 1 570, 8vo. 
 
 5. Thirty dayes hath November, 
 April, June, and September, 
 
 Twenty -and-eight hath February alone, 
 And all the rest thiity-and-one, 
 But in the leape you must add one. 
 
 Harrison's Dis. Brit., p. 119. 
 
 Memorial Lines used isy the Society of Friends. 
 
 6 Days twenty-eight in second month appear, 
 And one day more is added each leap year: 
 The fourth, eleventh, ninth, and sixth months run 
 To thirty days, — the rest to thirty-one. 
 
 Partial Variations. 
 
 7. Except in leap year, at which time, 
 February's days are twenty-nine. 
 
 8. But leap year cometh once in four, 
 And gives to February one day more. 
 
 9. Except in February alone, 
 
 In which do twenty-eight appear, 
 And twenty-nine in each leap year. 
 
 To find leap year you have this rule : — 
 
 Divide by iv, what's left shall be, 
 For leap year 0, for past i, ii, and iii, 
 
 Harris. 
 
102 THE DENHAM TRACTS. 
 
 A Rhyme whereby to remember on what Day of the Week 
 each Month falleth. 
 
 April loveth to lint with July, Sunday. 
 
 And the merry New Year with October comes by, Monday. 
 
 August for Wednesday, Tuesday for May, Tuesday and Wednesday. 
 March and November and Valentine's Day Thursday. 
 
 Friday is June day. and last we seek, Friday. 
 
 September and Christmas to finish the week. Saturday. 
 
 Rhymes on the Days of Birth. 
 
 Born on a Monday, fair of face : 
 
 Born on a Tuesday, full of grace : 
 
 Born on a Wednesday, merry and glad : 
 
 Born on a Thursday, sour and sad: 
 
 Born on a Friday, godly given : 
 
 Born on a Saturday, work for your living : 
 
 Born on a Sunday, never shall want, 
 
 And here ends the week, and there's an end on't. 
 
 Rhymes on Wedding Days. 
 
 Monday for wealth, 
 
 Tuesday for health, 
 Wednesday the best day of all ; 
 
 Thursday for crosses, 
 
 Friday for losses, 
 And Saturday no luck at all. 
 
 Rhymes on the Days op the Week. 
 
 Saturday is Sunday's brother, 
 
 Monday is no other : 
 
 Tuesday is the market day, 
 
 Wednesday carries the week away : 
 
 Thursday I won't spin, 
 
 And on Friday I'll never begin. 
 
XII. 
 
 CHARMS. 
 
 A Revelation, on Chabact. 
 
 In the Athenian Oracle a charm is defined to be " a form of 
 words or letters, repeated or written, whereby strange things 
 are pretended to be done, beyond the ordinary power of nature." 
 —Vol. ii. p. 424. 
 
 " If there be any good or use unto the health in spels, they 
 have that prerogative by accident, and by the power and vertue 
 of fancie. If fancie then be the foundation whereupon buildeth 
 the good of spels, spels must needs be as fancies are, uncertaine 
 and vaine ; so must also, by consequent, be their use, and helpo, 
 and no lesse all they that trust unto them." — Cotta, Short Dis- 
 coveiie of the Unobserved Dangers of sever all sorts of Ignorant and 
 Unronsiderate Practisers of Physicke in England. 4to. London, 
 1612, p. 50. 
 
 The sale of charms was, a century or two ago, a not un- 
 common thing in England ; it has now, happily, however, wholly 
 fallen into desuetude, with the exception of the lower classes of 
 our brethren from the sister isle. The wholesale usage is still 
 prevalent through the states of his Holiness the Pope ; also in 
 Spain, in Portugal, and in Ireland ; in all which countries, be 
 it observed, the religion of the Romish Church exists in its 
 most debased and intolerant forms. In the city of Leon (Spain) 
 "printed charms and incantations against Satan and his host, and 
 against every kind of misfortune, are publicly sold in the shop* 
 
104 THE DENHAM TRACTS. 
 
 and are in great demand. Such are the results of popery." — 
 Borrow's Bible in Spain. The same author says that he met 
 with charms of this class not only on the persons of the lower 
 classes, but he gives a translation of one which he borrowed 
 from one of the upper grades, who boasted that in it were con- 
 tained every hope of earthly safety. — Bible in Spain, cap. iii. 
 The following Anglo-Irish specimen of one of these religious 
 tracts in manu scripta is copied verb, et lit. for the edification of 
 the curious in charms, incantations, revelations, spells, and such 
 like items of the vulgar creed. 
 
 A Charm. 
 
 " For ye Blessing of Godd and His Son Jhesu Christ. 
 
 "A true coppy of y 3 Leter writen by God own hand and it 
 was found in a valey named Macconaby near to 3-e town of 
 Jesundry in ye valey named Macconaby in ye year of our Lord 
 mdclxix. this Letter was written by the command of Jesus 
 CriSt which was found under a great Red Stone Large it 
 was and not far from y e afors'd Town of Jesundry in ye valey 
 named Macconaby which was found in a morning and 
 Engraven [with] theas words following Blessed are thay that 
 Turneth me over y e people that Saw y e Stone writen and 
 Engraven did endevour to torn It over but thear Labour was in 
 Vain, so that thay could Not by any Means move it and when 
 thay could not prevaill thay prayed Ernest! j r de Siring God That 
 thay might and of that Same writing and thear came a Litle 
 Child betwixt S'x and Seven years of age which ye Same Stone 
 it turned over and without any world by [qy. worldly] help to 
 y° Great admaration of ye Beholders the Stone be [qy. being] 
 turned over ther was found a Leter writen whith Golden Leters 
 by the very hand of JeSus ChriSt which this Leter was carried 
 to Jesundry to be red in the Town be longing to y e Lady 
 
CHARMS. 105 
 
 Pencelbeo in diderioll (sic) itt was written by ye command of 
 JeSus CliriStt An Sent by an angell in ye year of Our Lord 
 MDCIII. which commandment was as foloweth firSt you Shall 
 Love one another Secondly thay that Workct home [on] ye 
 Sobboth shall be excommunicate [in the original this word is 
 partially defaced] Command that you go to Church and keep 
 that Day holy fourthly with Labour and Endevour and 
 EarneStly desire me to forgive all your Sins my commandments 
 you Shall faithfully and zealously keep fifthly you Shall 
 faithfully believe that it was writin with my own hands you 
 shall go to the Church and your Children and your Servants 
 with you thear and obServe my words you Shall Chasten and 
 correck your Children tach [teach] them to keepe my command- 
 ments you Shal Live with brotherlye Love you Shal Leave 
 work one [on] Setterday at nighte at five o'clock In 
 ye Evening and So continu untell munday at morning 
 you Shall fast five days in y e ememrance [remem- 
 brance] of the five wounds I Received for you you Shalle 
 not tack Nether Gold nor Silver wrongfully nether sorning 
 [scorning] my words nor my doings and I will give 
 mannyfold blesings and Long Life unto your Cattle and your 
 Land shall be repleniched with fruitfully To bring forth abun- 
 danse of all Sorts of fruite and Blessings Shall come upon you 
 and I will comfort you but thay that do contrary Shall Cursed 
 be and not blesed and thear Cattell Shall be cursed and unfruite- 
 full I will send upon yow Lightenings and Thunderboults and 
 want of Good Things I will send upon you that be witneSs 
 againSt this my writing and beliveing that it was not writen 
 with my own hand Spoken with my mouth and they whear 
 with given to the poor and will not Shall be cursed and not 
 blessed of mc in yo Conclution of theas Remember That you 
 keep holy ye Sabboth day without any Provaning of ye Same 
 knoweth 1 have given you Sex days to Labour one [on] ye 
 
106 THE DENHAM TEACTS. 
 
 Seventh my Self EeSted if any write a coppy of this Letter and 
 keep it without teaching of others shall be Cursed and not blesed 
 and whoSoever writ a coppy of this Letter with his own hand 
 [and] Causeth it to be red and Publiched he Shall [be] Blesed 
 of me and if he Sinned of then" [qy. often] as thare is Stars 
 in ye Sky his Sins shall be forgiven him again If you do not 
 believe theas but go again my Commandments I send unto 
 him wormes which will d'Sstroy you and your children and your 
 Goods or what So ever you hath more over if any writ a copy 
 of this Leter and keep it within his hous no Evil Spiret shall 
 hantt him If any woman be big with child if She hath a 
 coppy of this Leter abougkt [her] Shea Shall be delevered of 
 her burthen you Shall hear no more of me untell ye day of 
 Judgement all good nes and gladneS Shall come whear a coppy 
 of this Letter is kept. 
 
 " Laus Deo 
 
 " In nomina patris et Alius et spiritus sanctus. 
 
 " Amen." 
 
 Waldron in his description of the Isle of Man names a 
 Charact or Cbarect of very similar talismanic properties the 
 original of which Manxmen assert to have been found under a 
 Cross in the Island which he had frequently seen. 
 
XIII. 
 
 RHYMES AND PROVERBS RELATING TO HAWKING 
 AND THE CHASE. 
 
 All are not hunters that blow the horn. 
 
 " It is not the value of the fox, but the pleasure of the chase that 
 makes men foxhunters." 
 
 Better to hunt the fields for health unbought, 
 Than fee the doctor for a nauseous draught." 
 
 -Dryden. 
 
 Chapter I. 
 
 Foxes never fare better than when they are cursed. 
 
 Foxes dig not their own holes. 
 
 He who would have a hare for breakfast must hunt overnight. 
 
 As cunning as a klyket (fox). 
 
 Foxes prey furthest from their earths. 
 
 Does not know a fox from a fern bush. 
 
 [It's either the tod or the fern-buss. — Ber.] 
 
 The fox the finder. 
 
 He that will! ^fTf the fox must arise betimes. 
 
 The fox knows much, but more he that catches him. 
 
 Every fox must pay his own skin to the flayer. 
 
 As long runs the fox as his feet. 
 
 The fox will not leave a lamb to dine on a carrion-crow. 
 
 Does not know a hawk from a heronsew. 
 
 Hawks don't \ ?° v ® ; , „ > out hawk's e'en. 
 \varta, pikej 
 
 The gentle hawk mans herself. 
 
108 THE DENHAM TBACTS. 
 
 To fly at all gama. 
 
 Hold fast is the first point in hawking. 
 
 Empty hands lure no hawks. 
 
 High flying hawks are good for princes. 
 
 Between hawk and buzzard. — Hay. 
 
 He's a hawk of the right nest. 
 
 A goss-hawk strikes not at a bunting. 
 
 He's a good dog can catch all. 
 
 You can have nothing of the cat but her skin.* 
 
 The hare starts when least expected. 
 
 The foremost (varia, hindmost) dog catches the hare. 
 
 The more you hunt, the more hares you have.f 
 
 Dogs that put up many hares kill none. 
 
 If you run two hares you will catch neither. 
 
 He runs with the hounds and holds with the hare. 
 
 Little dogs start the hare but great ones catch it {i.e. eat it). 
 
 To fright the hare is not the way to catch her. 
 
 Where we least think there goeth the hare away. 
 
 We dogs worried the hare. 
 
 Find a hare without a meuse (a hiding place). 
 
 A houndless man comes tothe best hunting. 
 
 Many hounds may soon worry one hare. 
 
 We hounds slew the hare ! quoth the Messett. 
 
 A cripple on a cow may catch a hare. 
 
 Varia 1. A cripple may catch a hare. 
 
 2. A cow may catch a hare. 
 Perseverance kills the game. 
 
 A calf's head will feed a huntsman and his hounds. 
 Dog won't eat dog. 
 
 If you had not aimed at the partridge you had not missed the 
 snipe. 
 
 * There is a tradition in Wales that there was once a people 
 inhabiting Britain who, destitute of dogs, trained foxes and wild cats 
 for the chnse. — J. II. 
 
 | Explained by when one is killed another comes and takes her 
 lair. 
 
RHYMES, ETC., RELATING TO HAWKING AND THE CHASE. 109 
 
 War, hunting, and law, are :is full of troubles as pleasures. 
 
 A buck of the first head. 
 
 To take heart of grace (? hart of grease). 
 
 The stag when near spent always returns home. 
 
 Those who hunt are above the necessity of labour. 
 
 To hunt a hare with an ox. — Plutarch. 
 
 Ceamer IT. 
 
 If you be hurt with hart it brings thee to thy bier, 
 
 But barber's hand will boar hurt heal, therefore you need not fear. 
 
 Dog-draw, stable-stand, 
 Back-bear, bloody-hand. 
 
 The above rhymes imply that the king's forester had power to 
 arrest a man whom he suspected of having been hunting in any 
 of the royal forests under any of the above circumstances. 
 
 He that will the chase find, 
 
 Let him try up the water and down the wind. 
 
 Hunting, hawking, and paramours, 
 For one joy a hundred displeasures. 
 
XIV. 
 
 A FEW FRAGMENTS OF FAIRY FOLKLORE. 
 
 " The naturalists of the dark ages owed many obligations to 
 our fairies, for whatever they found wonderful and could not 
 account for, they easily got rid of by charging it to their 
 account." — Brand's Pop. Ant. (Charles Knight & Co.), vol. 2, 
 p. 285, note 15. 
 
 " My grandmother has often told me of fairies dancing upon 
 our green, and that they were little creatures clothed in green." 
 — Round about our Coal Fire, p. 42. 
 
 " But now can no man see non elves mo." 
 
 Chaucer. 
 
 The not yet wholly exploded belief in fairies, fays, and elves, 
 still closely connects itself with — 
 
 1. 
 
 Fairy Slippers. 
 
 12. 
 
 Elf Shots/ - 
 
 2. 
 
 Fairy Stones. 
 
 13. 
 
 Fairy Cakes. 
 
 3. 
 
 Fairy Butter. 
 
 14. 
 
 Fairy Javelins. 
 
 4. 
 
 Fairy Pipes. 
 
 15. 
 
 Fairy Kettles. 
 
 5. 
 
 Fairy Cups. 
 
 16. 
 
 Fairy Loaves. 
 
 6. 
 
 Fairy Caldrons. 
 
 17. 
 
 Fairy Mushrooms. 
 
 7. 
 
 Fairy Wells. 
 
 IS. 
 
 Elf Arrows. 
 
 8. 
 
 Fairy Hills. 
 
 19. 
 
 Puck Fists. 
 
 9. 
 
 Fairy Kings. 
 
 20. 
 
 Fairy Flax. 
 
 10. 
 
 Fairy Money. 
 
 21. 
 
 Fairy Bells. 
 
 11. 
 
 Elf Locks. 
 
 22. 
 
 Fairy Fingers. 
 
A FEW FRAGMENTS OF FA1KY FOLKLORE. 
 
 Ill 
 
 23. 
 
 Fairy Heads, or ( 
 
 Jolpixy 
 
 41. 
 
 Pixy Puffs. 
 
 
 Heads < 
 
 
 42. 
 
 Pixy Seats. 
 
 24. 
 
 Elf Fire. 
 
 
 43. 
 
 Pixy Stools. 
 
 25. 
 
 Elf Knots. 
 
 
 44. 
 
 Fairy Nips. 
 
 26. 
 
 Fairy Saddles. 
 
 
 45. 
 
 Elf Kirks. 
 
 27. 
 
 Fairy Sparks, or 
 Fire. 
 
 Shell 
 
 46. 
 
 Fairy Caves, Fairy Coves, 
 Fairy Holes, Fairy Par- 
 
 28. 
 
 Fairy Stools. 
 
 
 
 lours. 
 
 29. 
 
 Fairy Mills. 
 
 
 47. 
 
 Pixey's Grindstones. 
 
 30. 
 
 Fairy Kidneys. 
 
 
 48. 
 
 Puck Needles. 
 
 31. 
 
 Fairy Knowes, or 
 
 Hills. 
 
 49. 
 
 Robin Goodfellow's 
 
 32. 
 
 Fairy Bourns. 
 
 
 
 House. 
 
 33. 
 
 Fairy Kirks. 
 
 
 50. 
 
 Elf's Glove. 
 
 34. 
 
 Fairy Horns. 
 
 
 51. 
 
 Fairy Sickness. 
 
 35. 
 
 Fairy Eings, oi 
 
 ' Pixy 
 
 52. 
 
 Fairy Lanthorn. 
 
 
 Rings. Also 
 
 called 
 
 53. 
 
 Fairy Pools. 
 
 
 Fairy Circles, or 
 
 1 Fairy 
 
 54. 
 
 Elf-bore. 
 
 
 Dances. 
 
 
 55. 
 
 Fairy Hammers. 
 
 36. 
 
 Fairy Lint. 
 
 
 56. 
 
 Fairy Rades. 
 
 37. 
 
 Fairy Treasure. 
 
 
 57. 
 
 Fairy Music. 
 
 38. 
 
 Fairy Darts. 
 
 
 58. 
 
 Fairy-struck. 
 
 39. 
 
 Fairy Faces. 
 
 
 69. 
 
 Fairy Sabbath. 
 
 40. 
 
 Fairy Groats. 
 
 
 60. 
 
 Fairy Child. 
 
 
 
 Illustrations. 
 
 2. Encrinites and the entrochi. 
 
 3. Tremella mescnterica. A substance occasionally found after rain 
 on rotten wood or fallen timber ; in consistency and colour it is 
 much like genuine butter. It is a yellow gelatinous matter, supposed 
 by the country people to fall from the clouds. Hence its second 
 popular name of star-jelly. 
 
 •1. Small smoking pipes of an ancient and clumsy form continu- 
 ously met with in gardens and tillage fields in the north of England. 
 
112 THE DENHAM TRACTS. 
 
 They are also met with in Scotland, where they are called Pech pipes, 
 and in Ireland, in the immediate localities of Danish forts, where they 
 are called Dane pipes. 
 
 5. The Luck of Eden Hall is a cup of this genus. This name is 
 also given to small stones perforated by friction, and believed to be 
 the workmanship of Elves. 
 
 6. See an account of a fairy's caldron in Aubrey's Nat. Hist, and 
 Ant. of the co. Surrey, iii. 396. This vessel is of extraordinary size, 
 and hammered out of a single piece of copper. 
 
 7. The well near Eden Hal], Cumberland, from the brink of which 
 the cup was snatched by the butler, is of this class of springs. 
 
 8. I have been informed by an old native of Bishopton, co. 
 Durham, that the singular hill existing there was in his days of child- 
 hood called the Fairy Hill. 
 
 9. These rings are in accordance with popular local mythology, 
 caused during the festive meetings of the Merrie Fayes when daunc- 
 ing by monelight, to ye niusique of " Eobin Goodfellowe's pipes." 
 
 You demi-puppets, that 
 By moonshine do the green sour ringlets make, 
 Whereof the ewe not bites ; and you whose pastime 
 Is to make mid-night mushrooms. 
 
 Prospero, The Tempest. 
 
 10. Found treasure. Shakespeare notices this olden superstition. 
 " This is fairy-gold, boy, and 'twill prove so. We are lucky, boy, 
 and to be so still requires nothing but secrecy." — Winter's Tale. See 
 also Massinger's Fatal Dowry, act iv. sc. 1. 
 
 11. "His haires are curl'd and full of Elves-locks, and nitty for 
 want of kembing." — Wit's Miser ie, or, The Divels Incarnat of this 
 Age. By Thomas Lodge. 4to. Lond., 1596, p. 62. Another old 
 author describes it as " a hard matted or clatted lock of hair in the 
 neck." 
 
 12. The heads of ancient arrows or spears. They occur in abund- 
 ance in some parts of Scotland. They are formed of flint, about an 
 inch long and half an inch broad. Vallency says the peasants in 
 Ireland wear them about their necks set in silver, as an amulet 
 against being elf-shot. 
 
A FEW FBAGMENTS OF FAIRY FOLKLORE. 1 1 3 
 
 There is also a disease in horned cattle known by this name, which 
 consists in an over-distension of the first stomach from the swelling 
 of clover and grass when eaten with the morning dew upon it. The 
 complaint is popularly believed to be produced by the stroke of an 
 elf-shot or arrow. 
 
 13. A disease consisting of a hardness of the side in ages of super- 
 stition was so called. 
 
 14. Local mythology says that a fairy javelin was in the old times 
 preserved at Midridge Hall, in the county of Durham. 
 
 15. The same as number 6. 
 
 16. Fossil echini. Also known as fairy-faces. 
 
 17. A species of agaric. The same with fairy-stools. 
 
 18. The same as number 12. 
 
 19. A kind of fungus, vulgo a fuz-ball. The same with pixy-puffs. 
 
 20. The purging flax, Linum cathartic um. The same with fairy- 
 lint. 
 
 21. The flower of the fox-glove, which name is said to come from 
 fairy-folks-glove. My friend, Mr. Hardy, of Penmanshiel, says " the 
 word is from the A.S. foxesclifc, foxeclofe, foxesglofa, foxesglofe, and 
 has no reference to fairies." 
 
 22. Perhaps fox-glove bells. 
 
 23. Fossil sea-urchins. 
 
 24. The ignis fatuus was anciently called elf-fire. An old tract 
 bears the title " Ignis Fatuus, or the Elf-fire of Purgatorie," etc. 
 4to. London, 1625. 
 
 25. The same as note cloven. 
 
 26. Waldron tells us of a Fairy Saddle in the Isle of Man which 
 tho natives believed to be in requisition every night. It was a stone 
 in the likeness of a saddle — Works, fol., p. 176. 
 
 27. Luminous appearances oft seen on clothes by night ; also 
 called shell-fire. See Ray's E. and S. Country Words. 
 
 28. Mushrooms. 
 
 29. The domestic hand-mills of the Romans. 
 
 Also the sound made by the wood-worm viewed by the vulgar as 
 prctcr-natural. [" The wood-worm is the small brown beetle. — 
 Anobium domesticum."—J. H.] 
 
 30. Kidney beans. 
 
 VOL. II. I 
 
114 THE DENHAM TRACTS. 
 
 31, 32. Scenes bearing one or other of these names are by no 
 means rare either in the north or south of England. 
 
 33. A Fairykirk occurs in the parish of Caldbeck, Cumberland. 
 
 34. Mythical horns occur in several fairy tales. 
 
 35. The same as note 9. 
 
 36. The same as note 20. 
 
 37. Found treasure. See note 10. 
 
 38. The same with numbers 12 and 18, I believe. There is a 
 curious superstitions account of one in MS. 4811, f. 23. 
 
 39. See note 16. 
 
 40. A local name for certain old coins. See Harrison's Hist. Eng., 
 p. 218. 
 
 41. A kind of fungus. 
 
 42. Natural knots in the manes of horses. 
 
 43. Toadstools. 
 
 44. Certain marks on women with child, or women that do give 
 suck. For a curious account thereof see Ady's Candle in the Dark, 
 p. 129. Shakespeare uses the expression elvish marked. 
 
 45. Natural caves. Occasionally rocks, somewhat isolated, assum- 
 ing that form. 
 
 46. Natural caves in the earth. 
 
 47. Stone beads. 
 
 48. A common corn weed is so-called in Sussex. [In Hampshire, 
 " Puck-needle " is the name given to Scandix Pecten- Veneris. See 
 Wright's Provincial Dictionary.] 
 
 49. The wood-louse. " Cheeselyff-wormc, otherwyse called Eobyn 
 Godfelowe his louse, tylus." Huolet, 1552, part i. p. 6. [This 
 wood-louse is a species of Oniscus.] 
 
 50. The same, I believe, with note 21. 
 
 51. See Hone's Tear Book, col. 1533-4. 
 
 52. The glow-worm. [Lampyris noctiluca.] 
 
 53. In the shady stillness of a summer's eve fairies took delight in 
 bathing and sporting amongst the waters of a lonely pool or sedgy 
 bsn4 of some rippling brook. In some parts of the county of 
 Northamptonshire there are ponds which from this circumstance 
 receive the name of fairy-pools. 
 
 54. A hole in a piece of wood, out of which a knot has dropped, 
 
A FEW FRAGMENTS OF FAIRY FOLKLORE. 115 
 
 or been driven, by the superstitious viewed as the operation of the 
 fairies. 
 
 55. A species of stone-hatchet. 
 
 56. This grand annual festival occurred on the first day of May. 
 
 57. See Waldron's Isle of Man, p. 72. 
 
 58. The paralysis is, or rather perhaps was, so called. 
 
 59. Wednesday is the fairies' Sabbath or holiday. 
 
 60. A changeling. These children were little, backward of their 
 tongue, and seemingly idiots. 
 
 I 2 
 
XV. 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS OP NORTH OF ENGLAND FOLKLORE. 
 
 Michael Scott. 
 
 Long before Sir Walter Scott had given increased celebrity to 
 the wizard feats of his clansman, Michael Scott, his fame bad 
 penetrated to the remotest villages of Northumberland. Similar 
 anecdotes, but somewhat varied in the telling, have been trans- 
 mitted of him there, as well as in the hamlets on the northern 
 side of the Borders. The versions with which Sir Walter Scott 
 was acquainted are related in the notes to the Lay of the Last 
 Minstrel. The following are what I once obtained from Michael 
 M., who had heard them, when living as a young man in the 
 Hexham district. The Northumbrians call the magician 
 Mitchell Scott, and my informant's master used jocularly to 
 address him as " Mitchell Scott, the devil's piper." 
 
 Mitchell Scott was on one occasion crossing the sea on the 
 devil's back, and when they were half way over the devil cun- 
 ningly asked him what the good wives in Scotland said in the 
 morning when they rose. Mitchell wrothfully shouted " Mount, 
 devil, and flee ! " If he had replied, " God bless us a' this 
 morning," he would have been drowned. 
 
 The fame of Mitchell is great in that district for having beat 
 the devil and his myrmidons by the well-known device of 
 employing them to spin ropes of sand, denying them even the 
 aid of chaff to supply some degree of tenacity to the incohesive 
 material. 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS OF NORTH OF ENGLAND FOLKLORE. 117 
 
 In modern times he might have adapted their motive power 
 to some serviceable purposes, but it is firmly believed that even 
 in those dark ages some utilitarian ideas for human comfort or 
 preservation had crossed his mind ; for did he not occupy them 
 in erecting the Roman Wall, the whole of which they accom- 
 plished in one night ? 
 
 " Watling Street in many places of England is called 
 Mitchell Scott's Causeway, and it is believed by the credulous 
 vulgar there that the devil and his friend Mitchell made it in 
 one night." * In Stirlingshire also the military causeway and 
 other Koman works are sometimes ascribed to Michael Scott, f 
 In Fifeshire Michael's emissaries cut a roadway through a hill. J 
 Michael Scott was desirous to have a road through a marshy 
 piece of country called Cunninghamhead, in Ayrshire. He 
 ordered the devil to execute this task. Vestiges of that road 
 are to be seen to this day.§ Mr. Longstaffe thinks it possible 
 that Michael Scott may be commemorated in " Scot's Corner, 
 near Catterick, and Scot's Dike in Northumberland." || Mr. 
 Denham wrote me that he had seen somewhere in print that 
 "the devil and Mitchell Scott built the Eoman Wall jointly, 
 and that they completed the work in a fortnight." 
 
 He was also consulted as an engineer to render shallow rivers 
 capable of floating ships of burden up to quiet inland towns, 
 whose inhabitants envied the seaports, the flow of traffic cease- 
 lessly pouring through their crowded streets, to the general 
 enrichment, as they thought, of the entire community. Of tin's 
 
 * Ure's Hist, of Rutherglen, p. 133. 
 •j" Nimmo's Hist, of Stirlingshiae, p. 82. 
 | Blair's Rambling Recollections, p. 118. 
 § Mitchell and Dickie's Philosophy of Witchcraft, p. 290. 
 || " Durham before the Conquest," in Memoirs of Archmolog. 
 Instit. Xorthd., i. p. 58. 
 
118 THE DEKHAM TRACTS. 
 
 we have an instance in that well-written little book, Chatto's 
 Rambles in Northumberland (pp. 47 and 48), which has been 
 largely drawn upon by subsequent writers on Northumbrian 
 Folklore. The River Wansbeck " discharges itself into the sea 
 at a place called Cambois, about nine miles to the eastward, and 
 the tide flows to within five miles of Morpeth. Tradition reports 
 that Michael Scott, whose fame as a wizard is not confined to 
 Scotland, would have brought the tide to the town had not the 
 courage of the person failed upon whom the execution of this 
 project depended. This agent of Michael, after his principal 
 had performed certain spells, was to run from the neighbourhood 
 of Cambois to Morpeth without looking behind, and the tide 
 would follow him. After having advanced a certain distance he 
 became alarmed by the roaring of the waters behind him, and, 
 forgetting the injunction, gave a glance over his shoulder to see 
 if the danger was imminent, when the advancing tide imme- 
 diately stopped, and the burgesses of Morpeth thus lost the 
 chance of having the Wansbeck navigable between their town 
 and the sea. It is also said that Michael intended to confer a 
 similar favour on the inhabitants of Durham by making the 
 Wear navigable to their city ; but his good intentions, which 
 were to be carried into effect in the same manner, were also 
 frustrated through the cowardice of the person who had to 
 ' guide the tide.' " 
 
 " Michael Scott," says Sir Walter Scott, " like his pre- 
 decessor Merlin, fell at last a victim to female art. His wife, or 
 concubine, elicited from him the secret that his art could ward 
 off any clanger except the poisonous qualities of broth made of 
 the flesh of a breme sow. Such a mess she accordingly adminis- 
 tered to the wizard, who died in consequence of eating it, 
 surviving, however, long enough to put to death his treacherous 
 confidant." (Note 2 E to Lay of Last Minstrel.) The North- 
 umbrian statement is more circumstantial, and gives a reverse 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS OF NORTH OF ENGLAND FOLKLORE. 119 
 
 turn to the event. Mitchell having told his wife that nothing 
 was more poisonous than the boiled flesh of a breeming sow, 
 she faithlessly took advantage of the confidence reposed in her 
 by preparing for him a dish of the deleterious article, of 
 which he heartily partook. Growing deadly sick, he sus- 
 pected her infidelity, and ascertaining what she had done, he 
 made inquiry of what had become of the " broo," or water in 
 which it was cooked, for this was the only remedy to counteract 
 the poison. The wife had thrown it out, but being shown the 
 place where this had been done, he drank out of the hollow 
 made by a cow's foot sufficient to allay the baneful effects. He 
 punished his wicked spouse by causing two eggs to be roasted 
 and put fire-hot below her arm-pits, her arms being tied down. 
 She was thus, in a most cruel manner, " burnt to death, the 
 heat reaching to her heart." 
 
 Thomas the Rhymek. 
 
 Thomas Rhymer's name is equally well known in North- 
 umberland with that of his wonder-working countryman 
 Michael Scott, but I could not recover any more of his say- 
 ings than a rhymed couplet of some popular version of his 
 prophetic utterances : 
 
 " When Low Sunday falls on May Day, 
 Thomas the Rhymer has nae mair to say." 
 
 The author of Cheviot, a Fragment, by E. W., seats the 
 dim form of the seer upon a grey crag among the gloomy and 
 often mist-shrouded windings of Dunsdale, which includes as 
 one of its forks Bizzle or Baizle, the highest and most pictur- 
 esque range of rocks on the great Cheviot. 
 
 '' Then came to Dunsdale on the mountain's side, 
 Which never yet the sun's bright eye espy'd, 
 
120 THE DENHAM TBACTS. 
 
 A dismal den, black as the mouth of hell. 
 
 Here once, they say, did frightful spirits dwell ; 
 
 Now dead or bound, or sunk much deeper down, 
 
 Or domineer where Jesus is not known. 
 
 Damp streams, gross darkness, and a troubled air, 
 
 Stay yet — 
 
 Whilst we look on we are with horror seiz'd, 
 
 Yet seem with the delusion to be pleas'd. 
 
 Here about Lermot sat, who cou'd not climb, 
 
 And was contented with mysterious rhyme ; 
 
 Ne'er was nor ever will be understood, 
 
 And therefore by the most accounted good." * 
 
 Thomas Pringle, the poet, seats not " True Thomas," but the 
 " mountain spirit," upon the Hanging Stone. This rock is also 
 on the Cheviots, but further round on the north side, looking 
 towards Scotland. It acquired this name, it is said, from the cir- 
 cumstance that a packman was once resting upon it, with his 
 burden of cloth too near the edge, when the pack slipped over, 
 and its belt tightening round his neck, strangled him, The 
 same thing happened to a robber who was carrying off a stolen 
 sheep, both man and sheep being hanged. It is thus peculiarly 
 adapted for the seat of an unearthly being : 
 
 " For there the mountain spirit still 
 Lingers around the lonely hill, 
 To guard his wizard grottoes hoar 
 Where Cimbrian sages dwelt of yore ; 
 Or, shrouded in his robes of mist, 
 Ascends the mountain's shaggy breast, 
 To seize his fearful seat — upon 
 The elf-enchanted Hanging Stone." f 
 
 * Cheviot, by R. W., edited by John Adamson, 1817, pp. 40, 41. 
 \ Pringle's Poetical Works, p. 119, London, 1839. • 
 
XVI. 
 
 BORDER SKETCHES OF FOLKLORE. 
 
 The Hunter and his Hounds : a Legend of Brinkburn. 
 
 Under a grassy swell, which a stranger may know by its 
 being surrounded with a wooden railing, on the outside of 
 Brinkburn Priory, tradition affirms there is a subterraneous 
 passage, of which the entrance remains as yet a secret, leading 
 to an apartment to which access is in like manner denied ; 
 and as these visionary dwellings are invariably provided with 
 occupants, it is asserted that a hunter who had in some way 
 offended one of the priors was along with his hounds, by the 
 aid of enchantment, condemned to perpetual slumber in that 
 mysterious abode. Only once was an unenthralled mortal 
 favoured with a sight of the place and of those who are there 
 entombed alive. A shepherd, with his dog attending him, was 
 one day listlessly sauntering on this verdant mound, when he 
 felt the ground stirring beneath him, and springing aside he 
 discovered a flat door, where door had never before been seen 
 by man — yea, that door opening upwards of its own accord on 
 the very spot where he had been standing. Actuated by curi- 
 osity he descended a number of steps which appeared beneath 
 him, and on reacbing the bottom found himself in a gloomy 
 passage of great extent. Groping along this warily, he at last 
 encountered a door, which opening readily, he along with the 
 dog was suddenly admitted into an apartment illumined so 
 brilliantly that the full light of day seemed to shine there. This 
 
122 THE DENHAM TRACTS. 
 
 abrupt transition from darkness to light for some minutes 
 deprived him of the power of observing objects correctly, but 
 gradually recovering he beheld enough to strike him with 
 astonishment, for on one side at a table, with his head resting 
 on his hand, slept one in the garb of a hunter, while at some 
 distance another figure reclined on the floor with his head lying 
 back, and around him lay many a noble hound, ready as ever 
 to all appearance to renew that fatal chase which consigned 
 them all to the chamber of enchantment. On the table lay a 
 horn and a sword, which, seeing all was quiet, the shepherd 
 stepped forward to examine, and taking up the horn first 
 applied it to his lips to sound it ; but the hunter, on whom he 
 kept a watch, showed symptoms of awaking whenever he made 
 the attempt, which alarming him he replaced it, and the figure 
 started no longer. Reassured, he lifts the sword, half draws it, 
 and now both men became restless and made some angry 
 movements, and the hounds began to hustle about, while his 
 own dog, as if agitated by the same uneasiness, slunk towards 
 the door. Alive to the increased commotion and hearing a 
 noise behind him very like the creaking of hinges, he suddenly 
 turned round and found to his dismay that the door was moving 
 to. Without waiting a moment he rushed through the half- 
 closed entrance followed by his dog. He had not fled ten paces 
 when, shaking the vault with the crash, the door shut behind 
 him, and a terrible voice assailed his ears pouring maledictions 
 on him for his temerity. The fugitives traversed the passage 
 at full speed, and gladly hailed the light streaming in at the 
 aperture above. The shepherd quickly ascended the steps, but 
 before he got out the cover had nearly closed. He succeeded, 
 and that was all, in escaping perhaps a worse fate than those 
 victims of monkish thraldom which he had just left ; but his 
 poor dog was not so fortunate, for it had just raised its fore- 
 parts to come up when the door fastened on it and nipped it 
 through ! 
 
BOEDER SKETCHES OF FOLKLORE. 123 
 
 This story, being a family inheritance of the European race of 
 people, has obtained a wide circulation, and there are many 
 modes of telling it, answerable to the far separated localities to 
 which it has been adapted. We recognise it in the banished 
 Saturn reposing in a cave on a remote desolate coast (1) ; in 
 the Seven Sleepers of Epliesus (2) ; in the seven foreign 
 brethren, in Bom an habits, lying in a profound slumber in a 
 cave on the shores of the ocean in the extreme northern confines 
 of Germany (3) ; in the three founders of the Helvetic Con- 
 federacy, whom herdsmen call the Three Tells, who sleep in 
 their antique garb till Switzerland's hour of need, in a cavern 
 near the lake of Lucerne (4) ; in Ogier the Dane, or Holger 
 Danske, enchanted in the vaults of the Castle of Cronen- 
 burgh (5) ; in Frederick Barbarossa, miraculously preserved to 
 unite the Eastern and Western Empires in the Kylfhauser 
 Berg in Thuringia, or, according to another legend, in 
 the Untersberg, near Salsburg (6), but in the latter 
 place the tradition vacillates betwixt him and the great 
 Emperor Charles V. (7) ; and in the legend of the 
 tomb of Bosencreutz, as told in the 379th number of 
 the Spectator. Transferred to Britain, it has peopled the 
 mountain and sea-side caves with enchanted warriors and 
 huntsmen. In the subsequent notice will be found the parallel 
 tales of " King Arthur and Sewingshields." The story crops 
 out in the tale of the "Wizard's Cave" at Tynemouth (8). 
 The correct legend about Dunstanborough Castle, tells that its 
 chieftain was charmed with his hounds, his sword, and bugle- 
 
 (1) Plutarch. (2) Gibbon. (3) Paulus Diaconus de Gestis Lonrjo- 
 bardum, lib. i. c. 4 ; Olaus Magnus Historia de Gentibus Septentrion- 
 ulilius; Romce, 1555, lib. i. c. 3. (4) Mrs. Hemans' Works, ii. p. 65 ; 
 Quarterly Review, March, 1820. (5) Inglis's Journey through Nor- 
 way, Sweden, and Denmark, pp. 290, 291; Quarterly Review, ubi sup. 
 
 (6) Menzel's History of Germany, i. p. 487 ; Quarterly Review, 1820. 
 
 (7) Kcightlej's Fairy Mythology, p. 234. (8) Hone's Table Book, 
 
124 THE DENHAM TRACTS. 
 
 horn, and enclosed in one of the vaults of that ancient for- 
 tress (9), the adjuncts of Monk Lewis, Service, and others 
 being imaginary. At Fastcastle the adventurer comes out a 
 hoary-headed man, minus his coat tails. In the Cheviots the 
 cave contains " three men in armour," surrounded with their 
 "hounds, hawks, and horses "(10). Sir Walter Scott in an 
 early poem makes them an army assembled to aid Halbert Kerr, 
 by the spells of Sir Michael Scott (11). Sometimes they are to 
 return with Thomas of Ercildoune, and meanwhile remain 
 entranced within the chambers of -the Eildon hills (12). The 
 vault at Eoslin holds alive a warrior who may be approached 
 every seven years, and the difficulty to free him here, as well as 
 elsewhere, depends on the choice of the horn or the sword. 
 Thomas the Rhymer, with a mighty host, lies asleep under 
 Tom-na-hurich, a mountain near Inverness. 
 
 " Beside each coal-black courser sleeps a knight, 
 A raven plume waves o'er each helmed crest, 
 And black the mail which binds each manly breast; 
 Girt with broad faulchion, and with bugle green, 
 Say, who is he, with summons strong and high, 
 That bids the charmed sleep of ages fly, 
 While each dark warrior rouses at the blast, 
 His horn, his faulchion grasps with mighty hand, 
 And peals proud Arthur's march from Fairy-land ! " 
 
 Ley den* 
 
 ii. pp. 747-750. (9) Widdrington, a Tale of Hedgley Moor, by 
 James Hall, p. 84 ; Alnwick, 1827. (10) Poems by Robert David- 
 son of Morebattle, p. 172. (11) Lockhart's Life of Sir Walter 
 Scott, i. p. 310, &c. (12) Scott's Demonology, p. 133, where a 
 similar story is cited from Eeginald Scott's Discovery of Witchcraft ; 
 Leyden's Poetical Remains, p. 357. 
 
 * For more on this subject see Kelly's Indo-European Tradition 
 and Folklore, pp. 284-289, and not consulted when the above was 
 written in 1864 ; also Campbell's Popular Tales of the West High- 
 lands, iv. p. 85. 
 
BORDER SKETCHES OF FOLKLORE. 125 
 
 Legends of Kino Annum and of Sewingshields. 
 
 On this subject I have already written in the Local Historian's 
 Table Book, Leg. Div., ii. pp. 37-46, and this might be thought 
 to be sufficient, but the preceding illustration would not be 
 complete without the corresponding native versions of the 
 legend being placed in juxtaposition with it. 
 
 Sewingshields lies between the Roman Wall and the military- 
 road, near the twenty-eighth mile stone from Newcastle, and at 
 the western extremity of Warden Parish. Of Sewingshields 
 Castle, Mr. Hodgson informs us that in his time a square, 
 low, lumpy mass of ruins, overgrown with nettles, still remained. 
 " Its site is on the end of a dry ridge and overlooked from the 
 south by the basaltic cliffs, along the brow of which the Roman 
 Wall was built. There are also some traces of trenches near 
 it." * This is the castle reforred to by Sir Walter Scott in the 
 sixth canto of Harold the Dauntless as the " castle of the 
 seven shields." In reference to its present condition Dr. 
 Bruce remarks,! " Too truly he says: 
 
 ' No towers are seen 
 On the wild heath, but those that Fancy builds. 
 And save a fosse that tracks the moor with green, 
 Is nought remains to tell of what may there have been.' " 
 
 " It stood in the centre of the only patch of ground in ' the 
 moss/ which is now subjected to the plough. The walls have 
 been uprooted and the vaults removed, but the following 
 tradition relating to it will not readily perish." f 
 
 " Immemorial tradition has asserted that King Arthur, his 
 
 * Hodgson's History of Korthumbtrland, part ii. vol. iii. 
 f Wallet-Booh of the Roman Wall, p. 109. 
 % Ibid. 
 
126 THE DENIIAM TKACTS. 
 
 queen Guenever, his court of lords and ladies, and his hounds, 
 
 were enchanted in some cave of the crags, or in a hall below 
 
 the Castle of Sewingshields, and would continue entranced there 
 
 till some one should first blow a bugle-horn that lay on a table 
 
 near the entrance of the hall, and then with ' the sword of the 
 
 stone ' cut a garter also placed there beside it. But none had 
 
 ever heard where the entrance to this enchanted hall was till 
 
 the farmer at Sewingshields, about fifty years since, was sitting 
 
 knitting on the ruins of the castle and his clew fell and ran 
 
 downwards through a rush of briars and nettles, as he supposed, 
 
 into a deep subterranean passage. Full in the faith that the 
 
 entrance into King Arthur's hall was now discovered, he cleared 
 
 the briary portal of its weeds and rubbish, and entering a vaulted 
 
 passage followed, in his darkling way, the thread of his clew. 
 
 The floor was infested with toads and lizards; and the dark 
 
 wings of bats, disturbed by his unhallowed intrusion, flitted 
 
 fearfully around him. At length his sinking courage was 
 
 strengthened by a dim, distant light, which as he advanced 
 
 grew gradually brighter, till at once he entered a vast and 
 
 vaulted hall, in the centre of which a fire without fuel, from 
 
 a broad crevice in the floor, blazed with a high and lambent 
 
 flame that showed all the carved walls and fretted roof, and the 
 
 monarch and his queen and court reposing around in a theatre 
 
 of thrones and costly couches. On the floor, beyond the fire, 
 
 lay the faithful and deep-toned pack of thirty couple of hounds ; 
 
 and on a table before it the spell-dispelling horn, sword, and 
 
 garter. The shepherd reverently but firmly grasped the sword, 
 
 and as he drew it leisurely from its rusty scabbard the eyes of 
 
 the monarch and his courtiers began to open, and they rose till 
 
 they sat upright. He cut the garter ; and as the sword was 
 
 being slowly sheathed the spell assumed its ancient power, and 
 
 they all gradually sank to rest ; but not before the monarch had 
 
 lifted up his eyes and hands and exclaimed : 
 
BOEDER SKETCHES OF FOLKLORE. 127 
 
 ' woe betide that evil day 
 On which this witless wight was born, 
 Who drew the sword — the garter cut, 
 But never blew the bugle-horn I ' 
 
 " Of this favourite tradition the most remarkable variation is 
 respecting the place where the farmer descended. Some say 
 that after the king's denunciation terror brought on a loss of 
 memory, and he was unable to give any correct account of his 
 adventure or the place where it occurred. But all agree that 
 Mrs. Spearman, the wife of another and more recent occupier 
 of the estate, had a dream, in which she saw a rich hoard of 
 treasure among the ruins of the castle, and that for many days 
 together she stood over workmen employed in searching for it, 
 but without success." * 
 
 Mr. Errington, a recent tenant, has removed the vaults 
 altogether, without making any discoveries of moment. 
 
 The version of this story that I obtained from a native of 
 South Northumberland is less circumstantial, but its verity is 
 not the less to be depended on. 
 
 A shepherd one day, in quest of a strayed sheep, on the 
 crags near Sewingshields, had his steps arrested by a ball of 
 thread. This he laid hold of, and pursuing tho patli which it 
 pointed out, found it led into a cavern, in the recesses of which, 
 as the guiding line used by miners in their explorations of 
 devious passages, it appeared to lose itself. As he approached 
 ho felt perforce constrained to follow the strange conductor 
 that had so marvellously come into his hands. After passing 
 through a long and dreary vestibule he wa9 ushered into an 
 apartment in the interior. An immense fire blazed on the 
 liearlh, and cast its broad flashes to the remotest corner of the 
 
 Hodgson's History of Northumberland, part ii. vol. iii. p. 287. 
 
128 THE DENHAM TRACTS. 
 
 chamber. Over it was placed a huge cauldron, as if pre- 
 parations were being made for a feast on an extensive scale. 
 Two hounds lay on either side of the fireplace, in the stillness 
 of unbroken slumber. The only remarkable piece of furniture 
 in the apartment was a table, covered with green cloth. At 
 the head of the table, a being considerably advanced in years, 
 of a dignified mien, and clad in the habiliments of war, sat, 
 as it were, fast asleep in an arm-chair. At the other end of 
 the table lay a horn and a sword. Notwithstanding these signs 
 of life, throughout the chamber there prevailed a dead silence, 
 the very feeling of which made the shepherd reflect that he had 
 advanced beyond the limits of human experience, and that he 
 was now in the j>resence of objects that belonged more to death 
 than to life ! The very idea made his flesh creep. He, how- 
 ever, had the fortitude left to advance to the table and lift the 
 horn. The hounds pricked up their ears, and the grisly veteran 
 " started up on his elbow," and raising his half unwilling eyes, 
 told the staggered hind that if he would blow the/horn and 
 draw the sword he would confer upon him the honours of 
 knighthood, to last through time. But such unheard-of dig- 
 nities from a source so ghastly either met with no apjwejjiation 
 from the awe-stricken swain, or the terror of finding himself 
 alone in the company, it might be, of malignant phantoms, 
 who were only tempting him to his ruin, became too urgent 
 to be resisted, and therefore proposing to divide the peril with 
 a comrade, he groped his darkling way, as best his quaking limbs 
 could support him, back to the blessed daylight. On his return 
 with a reinforcement of strength and courage every vestige 
 of the opening of a cavern was obliterated. Thus failed another 
 of the repeated opportunities for releasing the spell -bound King 
 of Britain from the " charmed sleep of ages." Within his 
 rocky chamber he still sleeps on, as tradition tells, till the 
 appointed hour. 
 
BOEDER SKETCHES OF FOLKLORE. 1 29 
 
 Of the " Castle of the Seven Shields," thus Sir Walter Scott 
 sings : 
 
 " Seven monarchs' wealth in that castle lie stow'd, 
 The foul fiends brood o'er them like raven and toad, 
 Whoever shall question these chambers within, 
 From curfew till matins that treasure shall win. 
 
 But manhood grows faint as the world waxes old ! 
 There lives not in Britain a champion so bold, 
 So dauntless of heart and so prudent of brain, 
 As to dare the adventure that treasure to gain. 
 
 The waste ridge of Cheviot shall wave with the rye, 
 Before the rude Scots shall Northumberland fly, 
 And the flint cliffs of Bambro' shall melt in the sun, 
 Before that adventure be peril'd and won." * 
 
 One more local tradition of King Arthur is told by Dr. 
 Bruce: " To the north of Sewingshields, two strata of sandstone 
 crop out to the day ; the highest points of each ledge are called 
 the King and Queen's Crag, from the following legend. King 
 Arthur, seated on the furthest rock, was talking with his queen, 
 who, meanwhile, was engaged in arranging her ' back hair.' 
 Some expression of the queen's having offended his majesty, ho 
 seized a rock which lay near him, and with an exertion of 
 strength for which the Picts were proverbial, threw it at her, 
 a distance of about a quarter of a mile ! The queen with great 
 dexterity caught it upon her comb, and thus warded off the 
 blow ; the stone fell between them, where it lies to this very 
 day, with the marks of the comb upon it, to attest the truth of 
 the story. It probably weighs about twenty tons.' " f 
 
 * Harold the Dauntless, canto iv. " The Legend of Shewin 
 Shields " has been made the subject of a poem by James Service. He 
 makes the hero of the adventure a sort of Kip van Winkle. — Metrical 
 Legends of Northumberland, Alnwick, 1834, Svo., pp. 124, 139. 
 
 t Wallet-Book of the Roman Wall, pp. 110, 111. 
 
 VOL. II. K 
 
l.'iO THE DENHAM TJJACTS. 
 
 " Near the farmhouse of Sewingshiels," says Mr. Hodgson, 
 " several basaltic columns rose very proudly and remai-kably in 
 the front of the high and rugged cliff that the wall had 
 traversed, and one of these in particular was called by some 
 King Arthur, and by others King ' Ethel's ' chair. It was a 
 single, many-sided shaft, about ten feet high, and had a natural 
 seat on its top, like a chair with a bach, but was most wantonly 
 overturned a few years since by a mischievous lad." A variety 
 of other curule seats of ancient monarchs existed till recently in 
 various parts of the country. On a rock which overhung the 
 Maiden Well at Wooler, and on the precipitous margin of the 
 Maiden Gamp, was a natural chair called the " King's Seat," . 
 whereon a king sat and viewed his army lighting in the 
 cramped-up hollow beneath ; for, adds the legend, it " was the 
 custom for kings in those days to sit." This rocky throne has 
 unfortunately been quarried away. A similar chair exists on 
 Twinlaw, one of the Lammermoor range, in Berwickshire — a 
 hill celebrated in the traditionary annals of fraternal discord.* 
 The unfortunate James IV. of Scotland occupied a kindred 
 position during a part of the fatal day of Flodden Field, and 
 posterity, with true attachment to a theme so melancholy, till 
 recently offered to the passing stranger's gaze the King's 
 Chair. " It is," or rather was, says Wallis {History of North- 
 umberland, ii. p. 471), "a natural rock, on the highest part of 
 Flodden Hill, from which he had a good view of his own and 
 of the English army, and of the country around him." This is 
 also now quarried away. Arthur's seat, near Edinburgh, has 
 also its tradition of this class. There is a hill called King's 
 Seat about the head of Breamish, between the Hanging Stone 
 and Bussell's Cairn ; and a King's Seat also in the Lammer- 
 
 * New Statistical Account of Scotland, Berwickshire, p. 93. The 
 information about the chair is from oral testimony. 
 
BORDER SKETCHES OF FOLKLORE. 131 
 
 moors of East Lothian. But on this subject it would be 
 prosaic to insist. It has been " married to immortal verse": 
 
 " A king sate on the rocky brow 
 Which looks o'er sea-born Salamis ; 
 And ships, by thousands, lay below, 
 And men in nations — all were bis ! 
 He counted them at break of day — 
 And when the sun set where were they ? " 
 
 Byron. 
 
 In South Africa it is a chieftain's ambition that he should be 
 seated aloft on a crag. Moshosh leading the Basutos to take 
 vengeance on the Mantaetis, a neighbouring tribe, addresses 
 them : " To-morrow, brothers, you will have reconquered for 
 mo yonder high rook, whereon the Mantaeti sits at ease ; you 
 will offer it mo for my seat, mine." The army hissed its 
 applause, crying, " Thou shall sit, thou shalt sit on the rock, 
 King." * 
 
 In some instances these eminences may have been judgment- 
 seats of ancient courts. On Kyle Hill, in the parish of Clonfert 
 Mulloe, in Queen's County, Leinster, " is an ancient judgment- 
 seat of the Brehons, formed in the solid rock, called by the 
 peasantry hero the " Fairy-chair." This was the tribunal of the 
 Brehon of the Fitzpatricks." f Saints also had their memorial 
 seats on hills. The hill on the south side of Kilcattan Bay is 
 called Suid Chattan, or St. Cattail's Seat, and the hill on the 
 farm of South Garrachtie (both being in Bute) is called 
 Suidh Bhlain, or St. Blane's Seat.J If we consult Camden's 
 Britannia, it will bo found that these mountain seats are quite 
 numerous. 
 
 * Good Words, 180l», p. 2S4. 
 
 f Gorton's Topographical Dictionary of Great Britain and Ireland, 
 p. 4luS. 
 
 { Wilson's Guide to Rothesay, p. 133. Rothesay, 1848. 
 
 k2 
 
132 THE DENHAM TEACTS. 
 
 The Bells of Brinkbukx. 
 
 Centuries ago one of the priors of Brinkburn presented the 
 bells of that building to the priory of Durham. They had been 
 the pride of the secluded sanctuary on the Coquet, for their 
 tones were possessed of great power combined with sweetness, 
 and many tempting offers had Durham made to secure them, 
 but hitherto to no purpose. But she prevailed at length, and 
 the bells so coveted were removed from the tower and dispatched 
 on horseback on their way to Durham under the care of some 
 monks. They journeyed till they reached the River Font, 
 which, owing to a quantity of rain having fallen, was much 
 swelled. However, they prepared to ford it ; but when the 
 horses reached the middle of the stream the bells by some means 
 fell, or, according to the popular belief, were removed from the 
 backs of the horses by miraculous interposition, and sank to the 
 bottom. Owing either to the dangerous state of the stream or 
 from the bells being unwilling to be removed, the exertions of 
 the monks to recover them proved unavailing ; so they returned 
 to Brinkburn and reported the disaster. But the Brinkburn prior, 
 determined not to be baffled, sent forthwith a messenger to 
 Durham to request the presence of his brother prior, and both 
 ecclesiastics then proceeded with a full attendance to liberate 
 the imprisoned bells ; and lo ! the superior abilities of high 
 church functionaries over humble monks was manifest to every- 
 one ; for they had no sooner ridden into the stream than the 
 bells were lifted with ease; and, being conveyed to Durham, 
 were lodged there in safety. To this day it is a saying in 
 Coquetdale that " Brinkburn bells are heard at Durham ;" and 
 Wallis, in his History of Northumberland, assures us that 
 the bells of Brinkburn were removed to the cathedral on the 
 banks of the Wear. Still there are doubters. Walter White, 
 in 1859, says " the deep pool where the bells were lost is still to 
 
BORDER SKETCHES OF FOLKLORE. 133 
 
 bo seen in the river" [Coquet] (13); and Mr. Wilson is 
 positive that some years ago " a fragment of the bell was found 
 buried at the root of a tree on the hill on the opposite side of 
 the river" (14). 
 
 Of the bells, William Howitt, in his Visit to Remarkable 
 Places, fyc, p. 523, note, says: "The bell tower looks down 
 upon the Bell Pool, a very deep part of the Coquet, lying con- 
 cealed beneath the thick foliage of the native trees that jut out 
 from the interstices of the lofty, craggy heights, impending 
 over either side. Tradition says that into this pool the bells 
 were thrown in a time of danger in order to place them beyond 
 the reach of the invading Scots. It is still a favourite amuse- 
 ment among the young swimmers of the neighbourhood to dive 
 for the bells of Brinkburn, and then it is generally believed that 
 when the bells are found other treasures will be recovered with 
 them." 
 
 I fear that several of the tales of" flitted" bells are popular 
 myths. Thus tradition says that the bell of Coldingham Abbey 
 was transported to Lincoln, and is still there (15). It was a 
 popular opinion that the bells of Jedburgh Abbey were lost in 
 the Tweed opposite Kelso, in an attempt made to ferry them 
 across. " Another tradition is that they were carried off 
 to Hexham, and fitted up to adorn the venerable cathedral 
 there " (16). 
 
 Of the bells of the abbey of Cambuskenneth, in Clackmannan- 
 shire, it is reported that one was for some time in the town of 
 Stirling, but that the finest was lost in its passage across tho 
 River Forth (17). The Bell of Morven Church had been 
 
 (13) Northumberland and the Border, p. 197. (14) Berwickshire Nat. 
 Club's Proc, iv. p. 140. (15) Fullarton's Gazetteer of Scotland, i. 
 1>. 290. Hunter's Coldingham Priory, p. 75. (16) Hilson's Guide 
 to Jedburgh, p. 15. (17) Fullarton's Gazetteer, i. p. 233. 
 
1 34 THE DEXHAM TRACTS. 
 
 transferred from Iona (18). There is a tradition that St. Muree 
 used to preach at a place called Ashig, on the north-east coast 
 of the Isle of Skye, " and that he hung a bell in a tree, where it 
 remained for centuries. It was dumb all the week till sunrise 
 on Sunday morning, when it rang of its own accord till sunset. 
 Itwas subsequently removed to the old church of Strath, dedicated 
 to another saint, where it ever afterwards remained dumb, and 
 the tree on which it had so long hung after withered away "(19)- 
 Bells were sometimes not satisfied with their new positions. 
 They required to be tied till they were reconciled to the change. 
 Many of them, says Brand, " are said to have retained great 
 affection for the churches to which they belonged and where 
 they were consecrated. When a bell was removed from its 
 original and favourite situation, it was sometimes supposed to 
 take a nightly trip to its old place of residence, unless exercised 
 in the evening and secured with a chain or rope " (20). 
 
 The tolling of the bell of Brinkburn Priory was once the 
 occasion of the burning of the pile by a party of marauding 
 Scots, who would not have discovered its situation, so densely it 
 stood embosomed in woods, except for this imprudence (21). 
 
 Mr. Wilson says the fairies lie buried at Brinkburn. This 
 mortality, unheard of elsewhere, must have been attributable to 
 the potency of the bells. Half a century ago the bell of the 
 parish kirk of Hounam, in Boxburghshire, fell ; in consequence 
 of which the banished fairies reassembled from the ends of the 
 earth to resume their revelry on the green banks of the Kale. 
 But the mischief that they perpetrated was insufferable, and as 
 a remedy the bell was reinstated, when matters were restored 
 
 (18) Dr. N. M'Leod, in Good Words, 1863, p. 837. (19) Dr. 
 W. Beeves on " Moelrubha," in Proceed, of Society of Antiquaries 
 of Scotland, vol. iii. p. 201. (20) Brand's Pop. Antiq., ii. 136. 
 (21) Richardson's Table-Booh, Leg. Div., i. p. 223. 
 
BOKDEK SKETCHES OF FOLKLORE. 135 
 
 in statu quo ante (22). This is true to the general belief about 
 these beings. " There is a hill near Botna, in Sweden, in 
 which formerly dwelt a troll, a sort of Scandinavian fairy. 
 When they got up bells in Botna Church, and he heard the 
 ringing of them, he is related to have said : 
 
 ' Pleasant it were in Botnahill to dwell, 
 Wore it not for the sound of that plaguey bell.' 
 
 It is said that a farmer having found a troll sitting very dis- 
 consolate on a stone near Tiis lake, in the island of Zealand, 
 and taking him at first for a decent Christian man, accosted him 
 with, ' Well ! where are yon going, friend ? ' ' Ah ! ' said ho, 
 in a melancholy tone, 'I am going off out the country. I 
 cannot live hero any longer, they keep such eternal ringing and 
 dinging !'" (23). 
 
 Hid Treasure. 
 
 In the South of Scotland " it is believed that there is con- 
 cealed at Tamleuchar Cross, in Selkirkshire, a valuable treasure, 
 of which the situation is thus vaguely described in a popular 
 
 rhyme : 
 
 ' Atwcen the wat grund and the dry, 
 
 The gowd o' Tamleuchar doth lie ' " (24). 
 
 A correspondent thus writes : " Before the old kirk of Hutton 
 (I think more than twenty years since) was taken down, a man 
 from about Newcastle, who professed to be a money-finder, 
 cainc down to Hutton and gave out that there was a large sum 
 of money concealed under a stone a few yards from the church. 
 He actually commenced operations in quest of it, but soon 
 decamped and was no more heard of. This is the only instance, 
 and a very recent one, that I can remember of a money search 
 in Berwickshire." 
 
 (•2-2) DavidWs/V/rt*, pp. 100, &c, 222, 223. (23) Keightley's 
 Fair y Mythology, p. 112. (24) Chambers's Pop. Rhymes, p. 240. 
 
136 THE DENHAM TRACTS. 
 
 The following Irish formula furnishes another example of the 
 singularly systematic consistency in the observances prescribed 
 for such adventures : " You know the rock beside your mother's 
 cabin ; in the east end of that rock there is a loose stone, 
 covered over with grey moss, just two feet below the cleft out 
 of which the hanging rowan tree grows ; pull that stone out and 
 you will find more gold than would make a duke. Neither 
 speak to any person, nor let any living thing touch your lips 
 till you come back " (25). 
 
 It is to be hoped that there are now few who regard these 
 stories otherwise than as exploded fictions of the days gone by. 
 But if believers in them there are any, it would be lost labour to 
 expostulate with them for being under an infatuation; they would 
 not, like the Arab sheik, be convinced, even by the oath of their 
 own brother. " Osman," said he, " I would not believe it if 
 that brother had sworn it. I know there is treasure in the 
 Wady Moussa ; I have dug for it, and I mean to dig for it 
 again (26). 
 
 Fairies. 
 
 The Rev. John Horsley in his Materials for the History of 
 Northumberland, gathered in 1729-30, and printed by the 
 late Mr. Hodgson Hinde, says, " The stories of fairies seem now 
 to be much worn both out of date and out of credit." This is, 
 however, incorrect, so far as regards country people, long after 
 Horsley's time. An old man once said to me that in the part 
 of Northumberland where he dwelt there was a time when there 
 was not a solitary hawthorn tree away out on the green hills, 
 standing amid its circuit of fine cropped grass, that was not 
 
 (25) Oai-leton's Three Tasks, &c, p. 90. (26) Stephens' Travels 
 in Egypt, &c, chap, 22. 
 
BOUDEK SKETCHES OF FOLKLORE. 137 
 
 witness to the fairy revel and dance held beneath its encircling 
 branches in the twilight or by the pale light of the moon. The 
 Northumbrian fairies, numerous as they were, had been once a 
 shy people, and little now can be gathered about their ongoings, 
 which, however, have the same peculiarities as have been told 
 of them in other favourite haunts. I shall give the few simple 
 stories that I have heard as they were told to me. 
 
 A woman had a child that was remarkably puny. It was 
 voracious enough, " but put all the meat it got within an ill 
 skin," and never grew any, and there were shrewd suspicions 
 that it was a changeling. One day a neighbour came running 
 into her house, and shouted out, " Come here, and ye'll see a 
 sight ! Yonder's the Fairy Hill a' alowe." " Waes me ! what'll 
 come o' my wife and bairns ? " screamed out the elf in the bed, 
 and straightway made its exit up the chimney. 
 
 A ploughman was once engaged with his team, consisting of 
 two oxen and two horses, with a boy to guide them, in tilling a 
 field at Humshaugli, near the North Tyne, which was reputed to 
 be haunted by the fairies. While at one of the " land ends" 
 he hears a great kirnin' going on, somewhere near him. Ho 
 made another circuit, and listening, was aware of a doleful voice 
 lamenting: " Alack- a-day I've broken my kirn-staff, what will 
 I do?" "Give it to me, and I'll mend it,'" cries the good- 
 natured ploughman; and on his return from the next "bout," 
 he found the kirn-staff laid out for him, along with a hammer 
 and nails. He carefully repaired and left it, when after making 
 another turn he came back to the spot it was gone, and a 
 liberal supply of bread and butter was set down in its place. 
 He and the boy partook of the repast, and all the cattle had a 
 share, except one ox, which resisted every effort to force the 
 food upon it. Before he got to the next land's end the stubborn 
 brute dropped down dead. I have heard the story told in almost 
 the same manner in Berwickshire. Parallel instances of fairies 
 
138 THE DENHAM TEACTS. 
 
 requiring human aid to mend their utensils may be found in 
 Jabez Allies, " On the Ignis Fatuus, or Will-o'-the-Wisp and 
 the Fairies/'' extracted in Athenceum, 1846, p. 955 ; also 1. c. 
 p. 1085. 
 
 Mothers sometimes brought the cradle to the field in the 
 harvest time and left it at the ridge end, when the little inmate 
 would be liable to be exchanged for one of fairy breed. To 
 deter children who gleaned behind the reapers from interfering 
 with the stooks, it was customary to tell them that baits of 
 " fairy butter " were placed among the sheaves, and if they 
 were tempted to touch and eat it the fairies would kidnap 
 them. Of " fairy butter," Mr. Denham in a letter relates : "A 
 story is told here (Pierse Bridge) how that, some women going 
 into the field to work rather earlier one morning than usual, 
 now some fifty or sixty years ago, found as much as nearly a 
 pound upon the top of a gate post, how they carefully gathered 
 it into a basin, and how they each and all partook, and found 
 it to be the ' nicest butther that ony o' them had iver taasted.' " 
 
 A fairy man and woman once entrusted the up-bringing of 
 one of their offspring to a man in Netherwitton. He received 
 along with it a box of ointment, with which he was enjoined 
 regularly to rub its eyes, but he was to be careful not to touch 
 his own with it, otherwise he would incur a heavy penalty. 
 Curiosity overcame his scruples, and he anointed one of his eyes 
 with the ointment without experiencing any inconvenience. 
 Having gone to Long Horsley fair, he saw both the man and 
 woman moving about among the fair people, and thinking there 
 could be no harm in it he accosted them. Surprised to be thus 
 recognised, they inquired with what eye he saw thera, and he 
 told them, whereupon they blew into his eye and it became 
 blinded. The child was removed before his return home. 
 
 A midwife in Northumberland was one night summoned by a 
 man to go out and perform her office to a sufferer " in the 
 
BORDER SKETCHES OF FOLKLORE. 139 
 
 straw," to which she consented. Mounted on horseback behind 
 him, she was carried with incredible rapidity over an immense 
 space to a cottage, where the woman was soon after delivered of 
 a healthy child. An attendant brought to the midwife ointment 
 in a box, with which she was to anoint the child all over, but 
 she was to beware of putting any of it on her own eyes. In- 
 voluntarily, while executing her task, she happened to draw her 
 fingers across her eyes to remove some obstruction of sight, and 
 immediately her eyes were opened and she saw that she was not 
 in a cottage at all, but in the midst of a wild waste, where all 
 the fairy population was assembled round her. She had the 
 presence of mind not to betray any alarm, and having done all 
 that was required, she was conveyed back to her dwelling with 
 the same dispatch with which she had been taken from it. Sub- 
 sequently, being at a market, she observed among the crowd 
 the man and woman with whom she had formed this singular 
 acquaintance, as well as other agents invisible to man, passing 
 from stall to stall and purloining bits of butter and other edibles. 
 She addressed them and asked them their reasons for these pro- 
 ceedings. " Which eye do you see us with ? " asked they. 
 " With both," said she ; and they blow into them and both 
 were blinded. Of this and the previous story there arc many 
 variations. 
 
 At Ohathill farm, north of Alnwick, there was a famous fairy 
 ring, round which the children of the place could venture to 
 dance any times less than nine. If they had exceeded the pre- 
 scribed number of rounds they would have been taken away by 
 the fairies. It was customary there for the fairies to lay 
 " o-oodies " and presents of food for cleanly children, but when 
 the parents became aware of it the practice was discontinued. 
 
 Theso three last incidents were told me by Mr. Gr. B. 
 Richardson, formerly of Newcastle, who afterwards gave a 
 somewhat embellished version in the Table Book, published by 
 
140 THE DENHAM TRACTS. 
 
 his father, vol. iii. p. 45, &c. (Legendary Division), along with 
 other examples which he has not quite carefully referred to their 
 proper authorities. Having misprinted the word " fairies " as 
 " faries," he induced Keightley, who quotes the stories, mis- 
 takingly to suppose that in Northumberland " fairy " was 
 pronounced-" farry." (Fairy Mythology, p. 310, note.) 
 
 In a Book of Depositions and other Ecclesiastical Proceedings 
 in the Courts of Durham from 1565 to 1573, we find that " the 
 farye " was recognised as a disease which required for its 
 treatment magical agency. Robert Duncan, of Walsend, near 
 Newcastle, farmer, aged 72 years, depones: " He haithe hard 
 saye that Jennet Pereson uses wytchecraft in measuringe of 
 belts to preserve folks from the farye." Catherine Fenwick, 
 daughter of Constance Fenwick, gentlewoman, aged about 20 
 years, saith : " That about 2 yeres ago his cosyn Edward 
 Wyddrington had a childe seke, and Jenkyn Pereson ['s] wyfe 
 axed of Thomas Blackberd, then this deponente mother ser- 
 vannte, how Byngemen (Benjamin) the child did, and bad the 
 said Blackberd byd the childe's mother comme and speke with 
 hir. And upon the same this deponent went unto hir, and 
 the said Pereson wyfe said that the child was taken with the 
 farye, and bad hir sent 2 for southrowninge (south-running) 
 water, and theis 2 shull not speke by the waye, and that" the 
 child shuld be washed in that water and dib the shirt in the 
 water, and so hang it upon a hedge all that night, and that on 
 the morowe the shirt shuld be gone, and the child shuld recover 
 health : but the shirt was not gone, as she said. And this 
 deponent paid to Pereson wife 3d. for hir paynes, otherwais 
 she knoweth not whether she is a wytche or not" Robert 
 Thompson, vicar of Benton, aged 52 years : " Dicit that he herd 
 one wedo Archer doughter, called Elisabethe Gibson, saye that 
 Jenkyn Pereson wyfe heled hir mother, who was taken with 
 the farye, and gave hir 6d. for hir paynes, and that the said 
 
BORDER SKETCHES OF FOLKLORE. 141 
 
 Jenkyn Pereson wyfe toke 3d. of Edmond Thompson for a like 
 matter." * Elsewhere " the Fayrie " is accounted a peculiar 
 disease, probably from its name ascribed to fairy influence. 
 " For one that is stricken with the Fayrie, spread oyle de Bay 
 on a linnen cloth, and lay it above the sore, for that will drive 
 it into every part of the body : but if the sore be above the 
 heart, apply it beneath the sore, and to the nape of the necke." f 
 Again we are told, both instances no doubt translated from 
 older works, " The roote and seedes (of Peony), hanged about 
 the necke of children, is good against the falling sicknesse, and 
 the haunting of the fairies and goblins." f 
 
 * Depositions and other Ecclesiastical Proceedings from the Courts 
 of Durham, from 1311 to the Reign of Elizabeth. (Surtees Society, 
 pp. 99, 100.) 
 
 f Langham's Garden of Health, p. 47. London, 1574. 
 
 X lb., p. 453. See also Sussex Folkfore, in Folklore Record, 
 i. p. 44, this use of the plant being still in vogue to prevent convul- 
 sions and to aid dentition ; also Mr. Henderson's Folk-Lore, p. 21. 
 Pliny says of Peony : " This plant is a preservative against the 
 illusions practised by the Fauni in sleep," i.e. the nightmare {Nat. 
 Hist., book xxv. chap. 10 ; Bonn's English edition, v. p. 89 ; Galen, 
 lib. vi.). Simpl. Medio, is the author of the prescription of the roots 
 being suspended round the neck as a cure for epilepsy ; and 
 Matthiolus in his Commentary on Dioscorides supplies us with ,the 
 figment about the seeds. " There are not wanting," says he, " old 
 wives who, boring holes in the seeds of the pa;ony, string them like 
 coral beads and tie them round the necks of their children, being in 
 the belief that this amulet will keep off the epilepsy." P. A. 
 Matthioli Commentarii in Libros P. Dioscorides, &c, pp. 594, 595. 
 Yenetiis, 1570. See also Culpepper's English Physician, whence the 
 popular belief is probably derived. For the connection between the 
 pieony and the " Herculean disease,"' epilepsy to wit, see Cowley on 
 Plants, book iii. Lovell (Htrball, p. 334) says of pwony, " It 
 heals such as arc thought to be bewitcht, allaid with rue, fennel, and 
 dill-waters." 
 
142 THE DENHAM TRACTS. 
 
 In South Northumberland a great deterrent as well as re- 
 vealer of the fairies, and a preventative of their influence, was 
 a " four-neuked clover" (a quadrifoil), although a " five- 
 neuked " specimen (a cinquefoil) is reckoned equally efficacious. 
 This I learned from the people. Mr. Chatto furnishes an 
 instance. " Many years ago, a girl who lived near Nether- 
 witton, returning home from milking with a pail upon her 
 head, saw many fairies gamboling in the fields, but which were 
 invisible to her companions, though pointed out to them by 
 her. On reaching home and telling what she had seen, the 
 circumstance of her poM'er of vision being greater than tbat of 
 her companions was canvassed in the family, and the cause at 
 length discovered in her weise,* which was found to be of four- 
 leaved clover — persons having about them a bunch, or even a 
 single blade, of four-leaved clover being supposed to possess 
 the power of seeing fairies, even though the elves should wish 
 to be invisible ; of perceiving in their proper character evil 
 spirits which assumed the form of men, and of detecting the 
 arts of those who practised magic, necromancy, or witchcraft." t 
 Taylor, the water-poet, banters such pretenders as could cure 
 diseases by charms. Among others — 
 
 " Witli two words and three leaves of four-leav'd grass, 
 He makes the tooth-ache stay, repass, or pass." 
 
 " Half a century ago," says Mr. George Tate, in his History 
 of Alnwick, i. p. 438, "the fairies were supposed to have local 
 habitations in our district. There was a Fairies' Green not 
 far from Vittry's Cross; but on moonlight nights these tiny 
 folk trooped out of dell, and cavern, and mine, and from 
 
 * The weise is a circular pad, commonly made of an old stocking, 
 but sometimes merely a wreath of straw or grass, to save the head 
 from the pressure of the pail. 
 
 t Rambles in, Northumberland, p. 106 ; see also Napier's Folk-Lore 
 in the West of Scotland, pp. 130, 132, 133. 
 
BORDER SKETCHES OF FOLKLORE. 143 
 
 beneath the bracken, and from under green knowes, and out 
 of oilier lonely places, to hold their revels with music and dance 
 in the Fairies' Hollow at the top of Clayport Bank. Their 
 favourite haunt was the Hurle Stane, near to Chillingham 
 New Town, around which they danced to the sound of elfin 
 music, singing : 
 
 ' Wind about and turn again, 
 And thrice around the Hurle Stane ; 
 Eound about and wind again, 
 And thrice around the Hurle Stane.' 
 
 " Brinkburn and Harehope Hill too they frequented. Old 
 Nannie Alnwick, the widow of the last of the ancient raco of 
 Alnwick, the tanners, had faith in the good folk, and set aside 
 for them ' a loake of meal and a pat of butter,' receiving, as 
 slie said, a double return from them ; and often had she seen 
 them enter into Harehope Hill, and heard their pipe music die 
 away as the green hill closed over them." 
 
 On one occasion, while visiting Alnwick, Mr. Tate pointed 
 out to me the Fairies' Hollow at the head of Clayport, and a 
 series of steps, or rather little benches, caused by subsidences of 
 the soil, rising in a gentle gradient to Swansfield Gate, which had 
 obtained the name of the " Fairy Steps." 
 
 The last of the fairy race are said to be interred in Brink- 
 burn under a green mound. [Table Booh, Leg. Div., iii. p. 48 ; 
 F. R. Wilson, Ber. Nat. Club Proc, iv. p. 145.) On Fawdon 
 Hill, one of a series of low round-topped grassy eminences, was 
 held the fairy court ; the Elf Hills are still pointed out near 
 Cambo, and the Dancing Green at Debdon, near Rothbury ; 
 the " Dancing Green Knowe," among the brown heathy-backed 
 Cockcnheugh range, as well as the Dancing Hall, where stretch 
 the bleak moors behind Beanie) - , still testify by their names to 
 their being resorts of the "good people" for their favourite 
 diversion. " Even in our own day," says Mr. Robert White 
 
144 THE DENHAM TRACTS. 
 
 {Table Booh, Leg. Div.,ii. pp. 131-2) "many places are pointed 
 out as having formerly been the chief resorts of the elfin people. 
 A small stream called the Elwin, or Allan, which falls into the 
 Tweed from the north, a little above Melrose, was a noted 
 locality, so also was Beaumont Water, on the north of Cheviot ; 
 and the gravelly beds of both are remarkable for a kind of small 
 stones of a rounded or spiral form, as if produced from the action 
 of a lathe, called ' Fairy cups ' and ' dishes.' [These are con- 
 cretions segregated from fine clay. I have a good series from 
 the Nameless dean, on the Alwen or Elwand, but the locality 
 where they were obtained is now covered up. I have also picked 
 up similar fairy stones, known as such to the country people, in 
 South Middleton dean among the Cheviots, and they occur in 
 some of the banks on the lower course of the Tweed.] The 
 chief haunt in Liddesdale was a stream which empties itself 
 into the Liddell from the south, called Harden Burn. On the 
 north side of the village of Grunnerton, in Northumberland, is a 
 small burn, in the rocky channel of which are many curious 
 perforations, called by the country people ' fairy kerns.' 
 Similar indentations are likewise observed in the course of 
 Hart, near Rothley. In Redesdale also the ' train ' was accus- 
 tomed to dance at the Howestane-mouth, near Rochester, and 
 at the Dowcraig Top, a solitary spot about a mile north of 
 Otterburne." At Housesteads, by the Roman Wall, on a 
 meadow once occupied by a suburb of the military station of 
 Borcovicus, the fairies come from an adjacent cave for their 
 moonlight dances.* To the west of the station of Vindolana, 
 or Chesterholm, are the ruins of an extensive buildino- which 
 has been furnished with hvpocausts. " The pillars long retained 
 the marks of fire and soot, which gave rise to the popular belief 
 that a colony of fairies had here established themselves, and 
 
 * W. S. Gibson's Memoir on Northumberland, 1st edit., p. 34. 
 
BORDER SKETCHES OF FOLKLORE. 145 
 
 that this was their kitchen." * There were once a " fairy- 
 stone " and a " fairy trough," near Fourstanes, on the borders 
 of Cumberland and Northumberland. " In the rebellion of 17 1 5, 
 a square recess with a cover in the fairy stone was employed 
 to receive the correspondence of the rebel chiefs, and a little 
 boy clad in green came in the twilight of every evening to 
 rescue the letters left in it for Lord Derwentwater and deposit 
 his answers, which were ' spirited ' away in the same manner 
 by the agents of his friends." f 
 
 A number of them dwelt apart in the remotest glen of all that 
 scar the sides of the Cheviot Hills, where, among a most desolate 
 scene of peat hags, plashy bogs, and dashing waterfalls, up among 
 grey craggy declivities, and slopes of treacherous and slippery 
 boulders, is the obscure opening of a cavern called " Eelin's 
 Hole," whose final termination no one has ever been able to 
 reach. Into this gloomy receptacle they are said to have once 
 lured a party of hunters who were in pursuit of a roe, and who 
 were never able to find their way out. J 
 
 The Rev. John Hodgson, in his History of Northumberland, 
 has told the story of the fairies of Eothley Mill, in the parish of 
 Hurtburn, Northumberland (part ii. vol. i. p. 305) ; both of 
 his incidents have been transferred to Richardson's Table Book, 
 Leg. Div., vol. i. p. 325, vol. iii. p. 48, the latter without any 
 acknowledgment ; and from this secondary source it appears in 
 Kcighfley's Fairy Mythology, p. 313, under the title of " Ainsel." 
 There aro some original traits of the Northumbrian fairies in 
 Mr. Robert White's introduction to " The Gloamyne Buchte, a 
 ballad by James Telfer," in the 'Table Book, Leg. Div., ii. pp. 
 
 * Dr. Union's Wallet-Book of the Jlviwtn Wall, p. 145. 
 f Hodgson' a History of Northumberland, part ii. vol. iii. pp. 411- 
 412. 
 
 + Chatto's Rambles in Northumberland, p. 232. 
 
 VOL. II. L 
 
146 THE DBNHAM TRACTS. 
 
 130-138. Telfer's ballad, a fairy lay, is after the manner of 
 the "Ettrick Shepherd," written in that absurd orthography 
 which Hogg imagined to be old Scottish, which, to the degrada- 
 tion of the language, has unfortunately found a crowd of 
 imitators. 
 
 Fairy Treasures at Bambouough. 
 
 There is a part of the rock on which Bamborough Castle 
 stands only revealed to the luckj', where money is found, 
 having been placed there by the fairies. Those who participate 
 in their bounty may have it every time they visit the spot, but 
 unless a silver coin is placed among it to secure it, it would slip 
 away, as if it had never been. A certain lad got ever so much 
 money there, but he had always to add to it a piece of genuine 
 British coin, " to keep it whole," as the phrase went. An old 
 man upwards of seventy told me, and he had had the account 
 from his grandmother. 
 
 On Tweedside (North Durham), in some old pasture fields, 
 there still remain the twisted ridges, like ever so many repeti- 
 tions of the letter S, cast up by the plough, when oxen formed 
 the draught. The flexure was to enable the oxen to wind out 
 the furrows at the land's end without trampling on them ; but 
 the story is that it was a precaution against the malevolence of 
 the fairies, who took a malicious pleasure in shooting their fatal 
 bolts at the patient beasts of burden who tore up their grassy 
 hillocks and recreation grounds, and that they aimed their 
 arrows along the furrows, imagining them to be straight, but 
 they were baffled by their being drawn crooked, and thereby 
 fell wide of the mark. They were therefore called elf- furrows. 
 
 In the Tweed, near Kolso, there are some dangerous weills, 
 or whirlpools, of which the more noted are the Maxwheill, the 
 Big and Little Coble Holes. An old man, it must be upwards 
 
BORDER SKETCHES OF FOLKLORE. 147 
 
 of seventy years since, said he never went up the Chalkheugh, 
 a, high terrace overlooking " Tweed's fair river, broad and 
 deep," " after dark," without seeing the fairies " dancing round 
 the weils in the Coble Holes." * 
 
 An adventure with the fairies near Yetholm, which unfor- 
 tunately breaks off abruptly, I find in the MS. of "William 
 Jackson, a native of Wooler, supplementary to his brother 
 James Jackson's enumeration of the inhabitants of that place 
 when he was a young man. It was written in 1837, and 
 James Jackson was then seventy-four years old, and had been 
 absent fifty-five or fifty-six years from Wooler, which affords 
 the date of 1782. " My old schoolmistress, Stilty Mary (Mary 
 Turnbull, who lived with her sister Isabel), had a brother whose 
 name was Thomas. He occasionally came from Yetholm and 
 resided with his sisters for a fortnight or three weeks. When 
 Thomas was at Wooler the boys in passing used to shout, 
 ' Peace be here till Thomas Turnbull, the king's toller, pass 
 bye.' This was very annoying to the brother and sisters ; and 
 Thomas used sometimes to stand behind the door, with the 
 sneck in his hand, and bolt out upon them, and if he caught 
 hold of any of them the punishment was not so imaginary as 
 the offence. The origin of the reproach was this. Their father 
 was the collector of tolls at Yetholm. He had occasion to visit 
 Edinburgh, and in coming home, a few miles before he reached 
 the town, he came upon a large assemblage of fairies, dressed 
 in green jackets and other splendid equipments, dancing upon 
 a sunny brae to the sound of a great variety of musical instru- 
 ments and drums. At this sight and sound old Thomas's horse 
 stood ' right sore astonished,' and startled and curvetted in 
 
 * " Yet I have seen thee by the darkling stream, 
 Among the fuani-bells deftly dancing.''' 
 
 J. Telver, To a Fairy. 
 L 2 
 
148 THE DENHAM TRACTS. 
 
 such a manner as to endanger its rider. In this emergency he 
 bethought himself that the king's name might possess some 
 authority, so he shouted out with all his might, ' Peace be here 
 till Thomas Turnbull, the king's toller, pass bye.' The fairies 
 were so much engaged with their sport that they had not 
 observed him before ; but on hearing the order, instead of 
 obeying it, they came running in great " 
 
 (Ccetera desunt.) — The remainder cannot be recovered, but 
 Thomas probably won the race that would ensue. 
 
 The Berwickshire fairies were either a quiet lot or they lived 
 among a too matter-of-fact population, for their memorial has 
 almost vanished. The banks of Fosterland Burn, a contribu- 
 tory to a morass called Billy Mire in the Merse, "were." says 
 the late Mr. George Henderson, " a favourite haunt of the 
 fairies in bygone days, and we once knew an old thresher 
 or barnsman, David Donaldson by name, who, although he 
 never saw any of those aerial beings, constantly maintained 
 that he frequently heard their sweet music in the silence 
 of the summer midnight by Fosterland Burn, by the banks 
 of Ale Water, and on the broom-clad Pyper Knowes." 
 In the last resort another authority asserts that " they used to 
 come out from an opening in the side of the knowe, all beauti- 
 fully clad in green, and a piper playing to them in the most 
 enchanting strains." They once attempted, but failed, to 
 abstract the shepherd's wife of little Billy when in childbed ; 
 and they were detected loosening Langton House from its 
 foundations in order to set it down in an extensive morass called 
 Dogden Moss, in the parish of Greenlaw, but were scared by 
 the utterance of the holy name.* In one of Mr. Henderson's 
 MSS. I also find that some curiously formed eminences on the 
 
 * Henderson's Popular Rhi/men of Berwickshire, pp. 3, 70, 66, 67, 
 r.8. 
 
BORDER SKETCHES OF FOLKLORE. 149 
 
 banks of the Whitadder, near Hutton Mill, called the Cradle 
 Knowes, were in old times a scene of revelry for the light- 
 footed fairies. 
 
 The fairies of Greenlaw-dean used to hold a harmless mid- 
 night convention at the outlets of two drains called the Double 
 Conduits, where there was a constant supply of pure fresh water 
 to cool their thirst, after their mirthful exertions in footing it 
 on the fine unbroken sward that there clothes the banks of the 
 Blackadder. 
 
 A steep track, resembling a road, but apparently only a 
 fracture in the strata, up a steep rock-face near Oldcambus, near 
 Cockburnspath, is still called the Fairies' Road. Up this, from 
 the glen beneath, the queen of faery, while still visible to mortals, 
 was wont to drive in state at evening's close, " in her coach 
 and six." It was the natural approach to a British camp, 
 situated on a platform above. 
 
 A retired hollow, overgrown in summer with tall ferns, near 
 the head of Billsdean Burn, East Lothian, is popularly known 
 as the Fairies' O'on, or Oven, but has no legend attached to it. 
 
 The white-flowered Linum catharticum, or purging flax, 
 which grows in natural pastures, is called by the shepherds in 
 Berwickshire " Fairy Lint." It is supposed to furnish the 
 fairy women with materials for their distaffs. [As I was the 
 first to make known this name in Johnston's Nat. His. East. 
 Bor., p. 45, I protest against attempts made to explain that it 
 is so-called " from its great delicacy."] 
 
 The foxglove (Digitalis purpurea) has in its name no con- 
 nection with the fairy folks, but as I have noted elsewhere is 
 from tho A.S. l'oxesclife, foxeselofe, foxesglofe, foxesglove — 
 the glove of tho fox. Tho false etymology was, I believe, first 
 advanced in Landsborough's Arran, p. 144 ; accepted by Dr. 
 Johnston, Nat. Hist. East. Bord.,p. 157; and eagerly seized on 
 since by popular writers. 
 
150 THE DENHAM TRACTS. 
 
 When I was a boy the large flat stone on which the mistresses 
 of households knocked their linen webs when bleaching, which 
 lay beside the well at a farm-place in Berwickshire, had on its 
 upper surface an excavation resembling a small female foot, 
 which was reckoned to have been impressed by a fairy footstep. 
 Another stone with a corresponding impression by which people, 
 crossed a miry part of a road leading to St. Helen's Church, 
 Oldcambus, was regarded as a " Mermaid's Stone ; " she 
 having stepped on it (not being a conventional mermaid with 
 fishy tail) when escaping from her mortal captor, whoever he 
 was. These were natural concavities, the rock being of too 
 indurated a character, viz. Silurian of the closest texture, to 
 admit of being worked by the chisel. Footmarks cut in rocks, 
 in the Celtic districts of Scotland and in Ireland, are indicative of 
 the spot on which a chieftain or king was inaugurated by placing 
 his foot in the depression. See a paper by Captain Thomas, 
 R.N., " On Dunadd, Glassary, Argyleshire ; the place of 
 Inauguration of the Dalriadic Kings," in The Proceedings of the 
 Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 1878-9, pp. 28-47. In two 
 instances cited it is connected with the fairies. " Mr. Jervise 
 notes that a small undressed block of granite. lies by the side of 
 the mountain stream of the Turret in Glenesk, near Lord 
 Dalhousie's shooting-lodge of Millden, and upon it the figure 
 of a human foot, of small size, is very correctly and pretty 
 deeply scooped out. This is called the ' fairy's footmark ' " 
 (p. 39). "About 1831, when the ' Fairy Knowe,' in the parish 
 of Carmyllie, Forfarshire, was being reduced, or removed in 
 the course of agricultural improvement, there was found, 
 besides stone cists and a bronze ring, a rude boulder of about 
 two tons' weight on the under side of which was scooped (ho 
 representation of a human foot. Probably some distinguished 
 cliioftain had erected the tumulus, not only as a tomb for him- 
 self, but also as a place of inauguration whereon the engraved 
 
BORDER SKETCHES OF FOLKLORE. 151 
 
 stone, by which the right to rule was conveyed, was placed " 
 (p. 38, on the authority of Kilkenny, Arch. Jour., vol. v , 
 j). 4/31 ; and Jervise's Epitaphs, p. 249). 
 
 Of an example of a " Fairy Knowe," popularly so called, at 
 Stenton, near Dunbar, East Lothian, having likewise proved 
 on being opened to be a tumulus, I obtained notice, in 
 February, 1873, and also procured the wholo of the articles 
 discovered in the interior for examination. Till removed it 
 appeared to be a smooth grassy mound, but on the surface layer 
 of earth being stripped off it was found to consist mostly of 
 stones and boulders. It contained a stone cist formed of sand- 
 stone slabs, enclosing a large baked clay urn, rudely orna- 
 mented with lattice work and with upright and horizontal 
 lines, the mouth undermost, covering a few fragments of 
 human bones. Along with the urn, a very artistically chipped 
 flint knife, and a diminutive oblong sharpening stone of primitive 
 clay slate — both fairy toys — appeared. All these articles belong 
 to the Neolithic period. 
 
 It is true here, as all over the country : 
 
 " Where the scythe cuts and the sock rives, 
 Hae done wi' fairies and bee-bykes ! " 
 
 Fairy and Wishing and Healing Wells. 
 
 Resort to the Fairy Well is still a favourite pastime in holi- 
 day times with young people at Wooler. They express a secret 
 wish and drop in a crooked pin. Hence it is also called the 
 Pin and Wishing Well. The well is situated in a narrow hollow 
 among the lower Cheviots which rise above the town, and is 
 formed out of a natural spring of pure and very cool water 
 originating amons; rocks at the base of a high platform, which 
 has been occupied in the olden time by a British camp, now 
 known as the Maiden Camp (the Maiden Castle of Wallis). 
 From its connection with llio camp, or in compliment to the 
 
152 THE DENHAM TRACTS. 
 
 spirit of the spring, its genuine name is said by the old people 
 to be the " Maiden Well." * It is drained into an open ditch, 
 and is at present too shallow to admit of children being dipped 
 into it. Nor do I know that this has ever been practised here, 
 but'the old inhabitant who communicated some of this informa- 
 tion was familiar with the formula incidental to such applications 
 for healing purposes at sacred springs. The applicant having 
 cried " Hey, how ! " dipped in the weakly child, and before 
 departure left a piece of bread and cheese as an offering. Sir 
 Walter Scott, in his introduction to the Tale ofTamlane, refers 
 to a spring upon the top of Minchmuir, a mountain in Peebles- 
 shire, called the Cheese Well, " because, anciently, those who 
 passed that way were wont to throw into it a piece of cheese as 
 an offering to the fairies to whom it was consecrated." The 
 fairies themselves practised such ablutions. Fletcher, in his 
 Faithful Shepherdess tells us of — 
 
 " A virtuous well, about whose flowery banks 
 The nimble-footed fairies dance their rounds 
 By tbe full moonshine, dipping oftentimes 
 Their stolen children, so to make them free 
 From dying flesh and dull mortality." 
 
 Mr. George Tate, in a notice of the Wooler Pin Well, men- 
 tions having heard that a procession was formed to visit the 
 well on the morning of Mayday. This may have been so, but 
 
 * Maiden, however, is a term appropriate to British or even Roman 
 camps and ways. A terrace now in the centre of Wooler was for- 
 merly called the Maiden Knowe, and may have been once fortified. 
 There is the Maiden Castle on Stanemoor ; the Maiden Castle, an 
 old earthevn fortress, near Durham ; the station of Caer-vorran, from 
 the Welsh Caer-vonvyn, the Maiden Castle near the Maiden-way; 
 Edinburgh is the Castra Puellarum, See note in Hodgson's History 
 of Northumberland, vol. iii. p. 136. 
 
BOBDEE SKETCHES OF FOLKLORE. 153 
 
 on inquiry I could not find any tradition of such a circumstance. 
 It was natural that those who went to gather May-dew should 
 proceed to the well, being on the nearest open common. Madron 
 Well, in Cornwall, on a May morning is visited by groups of 
 young girls desirous of knowing when they were to be married. 
 "Two pieces of straw about an inch long were crossed and the pin 
 run through them. The cross was then dropped into the water 
 and the rising bubbles carefully counted, as they marked the 
 number of years which would pass ere the arrival of the happy 
 day." The practice also prevailed at a well near St. Austell. 
 " On approaching the well each visitor is expected to throw in 
 a crooked pin, and, if you are lucky, you may possibly see 
 the other pins rising from the bottom to meet the more recent 
 offering." * 
 
 The "Worm Well" at Lambton, co. Durham, had formerly 
 a cover and an iron ladle. " Half a century ago it was in 
 repute as a wishing well, and was one of the scenes dedicated 
 to the usual festivities and superstitions of Midsummer Eve. A 
 crooked pin (the usual tribute of the ' wishers ') may sometimes 
 be still discovered, sparkling amongst the clear gravel of the 
 bottom of its basin." t A well of directly the opposite character,. 
 Ffynnon Elian, the Cursing Well, is referred to in Mr. Halli- 
 well's Excursions in North Wales, pp. 63-65. " Various cere- 
 monies are gone through on the occasion ; amongst others, the 
 name of the devoted is registered in a book — a pin in his 
 name and a pebble with his initials inscribed thereon are thrown 
 into the well. When the curse is to be removed the ceremonies 
 are to a certain extent reversed, such as erasing the name from 
 the book, taking up the pebble, with several other practices of a 
 superstitious character." 
 
 * Hunt's Popular Romances of the West of England, p. 295. 
 t Sir C. Sharp's Bishopriclc Garland, p. 23. 
 
154 THE DENHAM TRACTS. 
 
 I had written thus much when I received from my friend 
 Mr. Thomas Arlle, Highlaws, Morpeth, an account of a 
 " wishing well" at Keyheugh, in the parish of Elsdon, North- 
 umberland, which has remained hitherto unnoticed. '•' In the 
 parish of Elsdon," writes Mr. Arkle, "about a mile south o: 
 Midgey Ha', on a steep hill called Darden, is a perpendicular 
 precipice of freestone rock, which is a striking object from the 
 Elsdon and Rothbury road, at a point a little to the east of 
 Graslees Mill. The rocky face extends to a considerable length, 
 the greatest height being about sixty feet. On the southern or 
 higher side the ground is level with the top of the cliff, whilst 
 below a large area is covered with detached fragments of rock 
 of all sizes, scattered about in the wildest confusion, the whole 
 place presenting clear indications of the tremendous power of 
 glacial action. 
 
 " Such is the wild and romantic place called Keyheugh, which, 
 though now lonely and deserted, was in olden times the 
 attractive Sunday resort of the young people resident in the 
 neighbourhood. At a little distance from the main precipice is 
 a well, on the bottom of which, centuries ago, might always 
 have been observed a number of pins ; or, as my informant, 
 who had visited the place in his youthful days, expressed him- 
 self, ' a heap of pins,' each visitor dropping in one to further 
 the fulfilment of wishes silently breathed over the magic 
 fountain." 
 
 The Rev. Gr. Rome Hall, in a very interesting account of 
 "Modern Survivals of Ancient Well Worship in North Tyne- 
 dale," in the Arch. ySliana, n.s., vol. viii. pp. 60-87, refers to 
 some of the fountains in the district to which votive offerings 
 were presented, either in the present age or the past. Some of 
 these wells had healing attributes, others conferred prosperity, 
 or led to pleasant anticipations that would ultimately terminate 
 in a course of action which would obtain the object desired. 
 
BORDER SKETCHKS OF FOLKLORE. 155 
 
 Over several of these wells saints had obtained the guardianship, 
 the native deities being deposed. The Halliwell, in the parish 
 of Chollerton, a chalybeate spring in a burn of the same name, 
 on Gunnerton Fell, has for a long time drawn numerous 
 votaries to its healing waters. In the village of Colwell, in the 
 same parish, the well, on or about Midsummer Sunday, used to 
 be dressed with flowers, as was customary with other wells else- 
 where in England on certain holidays. 
 
 Into the village wells at Wark, at New Year tide, the first 
 visitant was wont to cast in as an offering flowers, grass, hay, or 
 straw. The Birtley Haly Well was till recently visited on " fine 
 Sunday afternoons in summer, and itinerant vendors of refresh- 
 ments from the village, which is about a mile distant, were wont 
 to be present on the spot." But the chief well for pilgrimage 
 in North Tynedale seems to have been the Bore Well on 
 Erring Burn, near Bingfield, which is strongly impregnated with 
 sulphur. " On the Sunday following the 4th day of July," 
 says Mr. Hall, " that is, about Midsummer day, according to 
 the old style, great crowds of people used to assemble here from 
 all the surrounding hamlets and villages. The scene has been 
 described to me as resembling a fair, stalls for the sale of various 
 refreshments being brought from a distance year by year at the 
 summer solstice. The neighbouring slopes had been terraced, 
 and seats formed for the convenience of pilgrims and visitors. 
 One special object of female pilgrims was, I am informed, to 
 pray at the well, or express a silent wish as they stood over it 
 
 for the euro of barrenness If the pilgrim's faith were 
 
 sufficient, her wish at the Bore Well would be certain to be ful- 
 filled within tho twelve months A very considerable 
 
 number of visitors, with tents and purchasable commodities, 
 assembled even this last year to celebrate the old Midsummer 
 Sunday at the Bore Well." This festival was called " Bore 
 Well Sunday." Our Lady's Wells, or the Holy Wells, on the 
 
156 THE DBNHAM TRACTS. 
 
 banks of the Hart, near Longwitton, as related by Mr. Hodgsou 
 in his Hist, of Northumberland, of which the easternmost was 
 termed the Eye Well, attracted a great concourse of people from 
 all parts, in memory of the old people, on Midsummer Sunday 
 and the Sunday following, who amused themselves with leaping, 
 eating gingerbread brought for sale to the spot, and drinking 
 the waters of the well. A tremendous dragon, whom Guy of 
 Warwick slew, once guarded the fountains.* 
 
 Within Mr. Hall's recollection there was a yearly pilgrimage 
 to Grilsland Wells on the Sunday after old Midsummer Day 
 called the " Head Sunday," and the Sunday after it. " Hun- 
 dreds, if not thousands, used to assemble there from all directions 
 by rail, when that was availabe, and by vehicles or on foot 
 otherwise." 
 
 In the copious well of St. Ninian at Holystone, near Alwinton, 
 also called " Our Lady's Well," Dr. Embleton of Newcastle on 
 one occasion observed at the bottom many pins lying as votive 
 offerings. There was a holy well of great repute called St. 
 Mary's Well at Jesmond that had supposed healing properties, 
 and the Rag Well at Benton was also famous, where the votaries 
 left fragments of their garments attached to the trees and 
 bushes growing near the sacred fountain. At the well of 
 Venerable Bede, at Monkton near Jarrow, in Brand's time, " as 
 late as 1740 it was a prevailing custom to bring children 
 troubled with any infirmity, and a crooked pin was put in, and 
 the well laved dry between each dipping. Twenty children 
 were brought together on a Sunday to be dipped in this well, 
 and at Midsummer Eve there was a great resort of the 
 
 * The Eev. John Horsley (Materials for a Hist, of Xortlmmberland, 
 p. 9) says, " They have a story concerning a dragon at Thornton 
 Wells," which arc in the vicinity of Longwitton. They were mineral 
 waters. 
 
BORDER SKETCHES OF FOLKLORE. 157 
 
 neighbouring people (Brand's Pop. Antig., i. p. 383 (note), and 
 Hint, of Newcastle, vol. ii. p. 54). In the Picture of Newcastle 
 it is added that the concourse at the summer solstice was 
 attended with " bonefires, music, dancing, and other rural 
 sports," but that these customs had been discontinued before 
 1812, although people then alive remember to have seen great 
 numbers of infirm and diseased children dipped in expectation 
 of their being restored to health. 
 
 Quite recently Mr. Hall was told by an eye-witness at 
 Ricearton Junction of a man from that district of Liddesdale 
 who had taken the journey by the railway to St. Boswell's for 
 the purpose of visiting a Holy Well. His offering was a farthing, 
 and he returned home in full faith that the cure of a near rela- 
 tive suffering from cancer would be effected by the application 
 of the simple lotion. 
 
 Mr. Hall gives a number of other illustrations from other 
 districts, for which I refer to his paper ; and he inquires 
 whether the accumulation of Roman coins and other relics in 
 Coventina's Well at Procolitia, on the Roman Wall, may not 
 have been in part propitiatory, and connected with well- 
 worship. 
 
 The Hazeliugg Dunnie. 
 
 In crossing Belford Moor, by the upper road leading to 
 Wooler, there are several projecting rocky eminences of sand- 
 stone overlooking the valley, where Lyham, Holburn, Cheesham 
 in the Grange, and two farms called Hazelrigg lie. Several of 
 the more conspicuous rocks bear names, such as Cockenheugh 
 Craj^s, Collierheugh Crags, Bounder's or Bowden doors Crags. 
 Sum' Crag, and Jack's (Jack Daw) Crags. 
 
 In former times, and it may be so still, these heights were 
 frequented by a mischievous being, or rather spirit, called the 
 Hazelrigg Dunnie. Dunnie is reputed to have been a petty 
 
158 THE DENHAM TRACTS. 
 
 reiver of olden time who hoarded his gear in the crags, which 
 contain several cavernous receptacles adapted for concealment. 
 On one occasion, however, he was surprised by the people of 
 Hazelrigg in the granary robbing corn, and sacriticed to their 
 vengeance. He was loath to die, for it took " a the folks o' 
 Hazelrigg " to kill him. This event happened " lang syne." 
 His ghost, however, has haunted the place ever since. His 
 pranks seem to lie chiefly in frightening the children and 
 rustics of the village, and to be somewhat akin to those of the 
 Hedley Cow. Often in the morning when the ploughman has 
 caught his horse (as he thinks) in the field and brought him 
 home and yoked him with fitting care, he will be horror-stricken 
 to see the harness come slap to the ground just as he has 
 finished ; while his tractable brute, never guilty of such pranks, 
 is already beheld afar off, kicking up his heels and scouring 
 across the country like the wind. According to other accounts 
 Dunnie (as his name imports) was a Brownie, and created 
 uproar in mornings by an upturn of furniture. He also was 
 general exchanger of babies between the fairies and thoughtless 
 good wives, and was particularly on the alert when the mid- 
 wife came, sometimes substituting himself for the horse that 
 brought her and landing both her and her conductor in a 
 morass, taking precious care that "Dun" at least should not 
 be " in the mire." 
 
 This is a sample of Dunnie's mischief. At other times his 
 dim form is seen about the Crags, apparently bewailing the loss of 
 his buried treasure. This is inferred from his constantly repeat- 
 ing the rhyme given subsequently, whence the natives believe 
 that they could soon be rich enough — if they only knew how. 
 
 My friend Mr. W. B. Boyd, writing to me from Hetton 
 Hail, of date 1st October, I860, says, " The other day, on 
 examining an old map of South Hazelridge, I found the crag 
 running almost parallel with the Dancing Green Knowe, which 
 
BOltDER SKETCHES OF FOLKLORE. 159 
 
 is on North Hazelridge, but on the opposite side of the march, is 
 called Collier (or Coller) braes ; possibly the Collier-heugh of 
 the rhyme. A little further along on the south side of the 
 road to Belford is a crag called Bowden Doors, of which, I 
 think, the word Bownders must be a contraction. They lie 
 within half a mile of each other." 
 
 Still more recently, in passing a quarry before coming to 
 Plazelrigg, Mr. B. pointed out the steepest part, and said that it 
 was there that Dunnie sometimes used to hang over his legs, 
 when he took an airing at night. During high winds a peculiar 
 loud singing and changeable sound about one of the windows of 
 the farmhouse of North Hazelrigg perplexed the inmates, who 
 attributed it to Dunnie. On a careful examination it was per- 
 ceived to be caused by a piece of paper, fixed in the top of the 
 window, which the wind had converted into an iEolian harp. 
 Allan Ramsay in some verses, " Spoken to iEolus, in the house 
 of Marlefield (Roxburghshire), on the night of a violent wind," 
 actually compares the noise occasioned to that of the action of a 
 
 " kow." 
 
 " Say, wherefore makes thou all this din, 
 In dead of night ? — hech ! like a kow 
 To puff at winnocks, and cry ' Wow ! ' " 
 
 The story of Dunnie I got from a herd-boy, who came to me 
 when one day I was resting, within view of all the places 
 mentioned ; the rest of his character was known to an old man 
 of the district whom I questioned. It has appeared in Mr. 
 Denham's tracts, but I replace it here with additional remarks. 
 Mr. Henderson {Folklore of the Northern Counties, pp. 263, 
 270) compares Dunnie with the " Picktree Brag," &c, of 
 which he gives a pretty full account. In the notes to Thomas 
 Wilson's Pitman's Pcty, there are particulars of another Bran- of 
 the kind, which I feel bound to cite, that it may be preserved in 
 its appropriate plate. 
 
1 60 THE DENHAM TRACTS. 
 
 Mr. Wilson has been speaking of the witches of Gateshead 
 Fell, and their good treatment compared with those of Newcastle, 
 as they " were allowed full liberty to go where they pleased, 
 in what shape they pleased, and in what way was most agree- 
 able to themselves, either to scud over our hills in the shape of 
 a hare or whisk through the air on a broomstick."* One of 
 these, old Nell Bland, was " the only real witch we had on 
 the Low Fell." Going to the pit to meet " Awd Nell and 
 Cuddy's swine," 
 
 " Twee varry far fra sonsy things," 
 
 made the workmen " on the look out through the day for 
 some untoward event." f 
 
 Mabel was another of those old wives whose repute was none 
 of the best. 
 
 " The highly -gifted race of ' witches,' " says Mr. Wilson, 
 " seems rapidly tending toward extinction. There are here 
 and there yet to be seen the remains of their weak and de- 
 generate descendants, but in such a feeble and feckless state 
 as hardly to deserve the name. I have known one of these poor 
 creatures many years ago whose power never extended further 
 than raising a wind to blow off the roof of her neighbour's 
 cottage or shake his standing corn. I am aware that she 
 was accused of more serious mischiefs ; but how far these ill- 
 natured aceusations were true is very difficult to say, for I 
 could never discern anything about Mabel that would warrant 
 them, for she was neither deformed nor ugly, nor did I ever 
 recognise her frisking about in any other shape than her own- 
 In some other respects, however, she was rather a singular 
 woman. She had a memory that retained the date of every 
 event that had taken place for some miles round the place 
 
 * Page 74. t Tages 20, 23. 
 
BORDER SKETCHES OF FOLKLORE. 161 
 
 where she lived. She could give you the day and hour of all 
 the births and deaths in the neighbourhood during her time. 
 She knew exactly who 'came again,' as she called it, after 
 suffering violent deaths, either in coal-pits or elsewhere ; what 
 shapo they were in (for they did not always appear in their 
 own), and what they said when they could be prevailed upon 
 to speak, what it was that brought them back, aud how long it 
 was before the priest or some such competent person got them 
 laid at rest in their graves. All the haunted houses or places 
 she had off by rote, and could have given you the names of all 
 the ' uncanny folk,' or such as had ' bad een,' and had 
 amuied themselves by plaguing their credulous neighbours. 
 
 " Poor Mabel has been dead manyyears. She was in the habit 
 of amusing her young auditors with the birth and parentage of 
 ' Dick the Deevil,' who frequently rode over the Black Fell to 
 his work upon the ' Porto Bello Brag,' a kind of wicked sprite 
 that was well known in that part of the neighbourhood. The 
 description of the ' Pel ton Brag ' (Picktree, in the vicinity of 
 l'elton), given by Sir Cuthbert Sharp in his Bishoprick Gar- 
 land, induces me to believe that it must have been the same 
 roguish sprite that played such tricks at Porto Bello. As the 
 places are only a few miles distant, it is possible that he might 
 extend the sphere of his antics to the latter place when he was 
 not particularly busy at home. If they were not the same they 
 were evidently, from the similarity of their habits, from one 
 common stock. It delighted in mischief, and whoever mounted 
 it (for it always appeared in the shape of an ass) were sure to be 
 thrown into some bog or whin-bush at parting, when the crea- 
 ture, as if enjoying the mischief, would run off, ' nickerin' and 
 laughin',' as Dick would say. He had put the assmanship of 
 many to the test, but none were able to sit him whenever he 
 had arrived at a suitable place for depositing his load — not 
 even Dick, who had become a favourite, and who in the end was 
 VOL. II. M 
 
162 THE DENHAM TRACTS. 
 
 the only one who had spirit enough to cross him. Dick, how- 
 ever, from long practice, had a pretty good idea whereabouts he 
 would be laid, and, from being on his guard, very seldom 
 received an injury. The case was often very different with 
 others, who had not his precaution, or were not such favourites 
 as Dick, who was generally accommodated with a soft fall."* 
 
 For another version of the Hazelrigg Dunnie, derived equally 
 with my own from traditionary sources, I am indebted to Mrs. 
 Culley, of Fowberry Tower, which contains a few additional 
 particulars. 
 
 The ghost known as " Hazelrigg Dunny " is said to be that of 
 a reiver, which takes the occasional form of a dun-coloured 
 horse or pony, and frequents a cave on the side of Cockenheugh, 
 near Hazelrigg, called the Cuddie's Core. He had, according to 
 a tradition contained in the following old rhyme, lost a great 
 treasure, which he had no doubt buried in the neighborhood of 
 Cockenheugh : — 
 
 In Collier heugh there's gear eneugh, 
 In Cocken heugh there's mair, 
 But I've lost the keys of Bowdea Doors, 
 I'm ruined for evermair." 
 
 The two first-mentioned places are tracts of moorland, and the 
 " Bowden Doors " is a craggy mass of rock near Lyham. 
 
 Var. — " For I've lost the key o' the Bowden Doors." 
 
 "In the infernal regions," says Hans Anderson, "misers stand 
 and lament that they had forgotten the keys of their money 
 
 chests." 
 
 Pitman's Pay, p. 75, note. 
 
BORDER SKETCHES OF FOLKLORE. 163 
 
 A favourite haunt of the " Dunny " is Fowberry Bridge, and 
 lie is even said to pay a visit now and then to Fowberry Tower. 
 
 A few words as to the Cuddie's Cove. Cuddie is a corrup- 
 tion of the word Cuthbert, and an older and more beautiful 
 tradition than that of the "Dunny" assigns the Cuddie's or 
 Cutlibert's Cove on Cocken Heugh as an occasional resting 
 place of the famous St. Cuthbert when, as Bishop of Lindis- 
 farne, lie used to make journeys through his diocese. 
 
 It is told to Dunnie's credit that, if supper plates were not 
 washed up overnight, the Dunny came and washed them ; 
 whether he was a sympathiser with tired or lazy people, or 
 whether he did not like plates to be long dirty, tradition 
 deponeth not. 
 
 Apparitions. 
 
 In Murray's Traveller's Guide for Northumberland, pp. 161, 
 102, it is said: " Chillingham till lately had its Radiant Boy; 
 Hazelrigg, the goblin called Dunnie; Brinkburn, a terrible 
 monk ; Cresswell, a lady who starved herself to death in its old 
 tower; Wallington, its headless lady; and Willington, another 
 lady of awful aspect." Of several of these I have not traced 
 the history, but I find the " radiant boy " again at Corby 
 Castle, the seat of one of the branches of the Howard family, 
 lying on the Eden, near Carlisle. Mr. Fraser Tytler, the his- 
 torian of Scotland, visited Corby Castle, November 8th, 1840, of 
 which he thus writes to his sister : " The whole place is redolent 
 of feudal antiquity, with a fine gallery of old portraits, an old 
 library, and (as you know) a ghost ; but I have come away 
 without seeing the radiant boy of Corby. This was extra- 
 ordinary, for I had to walk to my bedroom every night through 
 n long dark gallery of which you could not see the termination, 
 with old warriors frowning on me, and the moon streaming in 
 through the Gothic window at the end — circumstances which 
 
 M 2 
 
164 THE DENHAM TRACTS. 
 
 one would have thought any well-conditioned ghost would have 
 profited by." — Burgon's Memoir of P. F. Tytler, p. 300. 
 
 A lady writes me : " There is a ghost at Painters' Gate, near 
 Fowberry, situated close to the cross roads between Wooler and 
 Chatton, Fowberry and LilburD. The ghost here is said to be 
 a man on a dun-coloured horse. Another instance of a ghost of 
 this kind is at the cross roads at Lilburn, where a man riding 
 with his head under his arm and a lady wringing her hands are 
 said to be seen." 
 
 A ghost used to frequent Weetwood Sandy Lane, and also 
 Weetwood Bridge and the road approaching it from Wooler. 
 If I remember right, some unhappy being "put away with 
 himself," or committed suicide, somewhere thereabouts. 
 
 Bev. Matthew Culley, writes : " The village of Humble- 
 ton, not far from AVboler, where the famous battle was fought 
 in 1403, is haunted by a ghost (of what sex I know not) in the 
 form of a hare, which is hunted sometimes by the Wooler and 
 Humbleton people — but is never killed." 
 
 The Rev. John Horsley in his Materials for a History of 
 Northumberland (1729-30), says, p. 9: "Adam Crisp, who 
 lived at Crawley Dean, is said to have had encounters with an 
 apparition there. They talk also of his going to London and 
 coming back in forty-eight hours. Mr. Punshon told me that 
 Crisp had sent to him about the apparition. On the 4th of 
 July, 1728, when I was at Piercebridge, in my tour, the people 
 told me of a stone coffin which had been converted into a swine 
 trough, but the people who had done this were so haunted and 
 disturbed that they were glad to return it to i(s former place." 
 
 Mr. Sidney Gibson, in his Memoir on Northumberland, 1st 
 ed., p 36, states that "the ruins of a mansion of the Orde 
 family, built at a place called Sandy Bank, is attributed to a 
 ghost of such terrific character as to have rendered it unin- 
 habitable." 
 
border sketches of folklore. 1 65 
 
 Dudley Brechan's Ghost. 
 
 The spirit of Dudley Brechan haunted the " Big House," on 
 the Tenter's Hill, a bulky, red-tiled, and white-washed mansion, 
 one of a row built on a ridge, where the dyers of Wooler were 
 wont in former days to stretch their webs to dry. It is an old 
 story, with its details lost. When the ghost paid its evening 
 visits, its descent was like a " meikle cupple " falling with a 
 crash on the ceiling. Many a "gliff" the folk got; but 
 beyond frightening them it perpetrated no other mischief. 
 
 When people wakened and looked out early in the morning, 
 they would have seen a carriage coming up the main street of 
 the town, drawn by black horses, on its way to the churchyard. 
 No one living at Wooler knew anything of" Dudley Brechan." * 
 
 * There is a notice of the Brechans or Brechams or Brighams, in 
 the MS. of the brothers Jackson, of date as far back as 1782. John 
 Brccliam lived then in Ramsay's Lane, as a dyer, and valued himself 
 for dyeing " a good bright yellough," as he pronounced the word 
 yellow. He was supposed, from his dialect, to be from Aberdeen- 
 shire. " He was a great peaferer, often complaining of little to do 
 and consequent poverty. My father when living in Stein Laidley's 
 house, had a frequent visit of Johnnie, when working by candlelight. 
 Knowing John's weakness he used occasionally to provide a shilling's 
 worth of halfpence, which he put in a leathern purse and shook at him, 
 when he came in. ' Aye weol-a-wat, Andrew, ye get it aw ; ye have 
 nye plenty and ma share o' the siller is very sma.' I have often 
 heard it remarked that old people, though very feeble when they 
 began harvest work, revived greatly in a few days. I remember 
 gathering upon Horsdcn (a cultivated hill face above Wooler) after 
 the shearers. T was sitting near Jenny Biecham, John's wife, at 
 dinner time, when she made this remark to one of her neighbours : 
 ' And for instance,' said she, ' there's our Johnnie, when he came 
 first out he could scarcely step over a strae, and now ho's as canty as 
 a kale-worm.'" This pair may have been relatives of Dudley, for I 
 can gather that they had a family. 
 
166 THE DENHAM TRACTS. 
 
 It was recollected that a suicide, " one who put down himself," 
 was buried at the churchyard gate of that place. 
 
 "Willy Wabby's Ghost. 
 
 Willy Wabby's (Walby's) ghost, which once gained great 
 notoriety, was contrived by a person who wished to get pos- 
 session of a " big house," called Lark Hall, near Burrowdon, 
 about the year 1800. The plates and other crockery came 
 dancing off the shelf on to the floor. People going into the 
 house would suddenly have a pot or other utensil clapped on 
 the crown of their head, or be liable to have some other divert- 
 ing cantrip played on them. The country folks used to flock 
 from a far way off to witness or get the news of the droll pro- 
 ceedings. There are full particulars in Mackenzie's History of 
 Northumberland, ii., note, p. 42, but this reference to it is 
 traditionary. 
 
 Andrew Bates, who was curate of Si John's Church, New- 
 castle, from 1689 to 1710, was much employed in exorcising 
 houses reputed to be haunted. I remember his son, Ulric 
 Bates, living 1763. Bates was celebrated in particular for 
 laying, as they stated it, the ghost of one Barbara Cay, wife of 
 a Mr. Cay, a Presbyterian of fortune and reputation in New- 
 castle, after all the Presbyterian ministers had failed. — Credat 
 Judceus (Spearman's MSS.). 
 
 White Ladies. 
 
 The White Lady was either akin to the ghost or the spirit of a 
 fountain. A wood between Yeavoring and Akeld, which is 
 nothing more than a strip of modern planting, is haunted by a 
 " White Lady," who appears to walk there during the night to 
 frighten people. The White Lady near Whittingham, in 
 
BORDER SKETCHES OF FOLKLORE. 167 
 
 Northumberland, had some connection with a well close to the 
 River Aln above that village, situated at the Lee or Lea-side. 
 The well goes by the name of the Lady Well or Lady's Well. 
 " The Legend of the White Lady of Blenkinsopp " is told in 
 Richardson's Table Book, Leg. Div., iii. pp. 144-148 (by 
 William Pattison and G. B. Richardson).* At Detchant, near 
 Belford, is what was named to me a " Cattle Well, " f which 
 was frequented by a White Lady. I could ascertain nothing 
 more of her from the old man, who had heard of it in his 
 youth. Detchant, he told me, was wont to be a lonely place, 
 and was infamous for robberies committed near it. 
 
 For the following account of a White Lady who haunts 
 Coupland Castle on the River Glen, I am indebted to Rev. 
 Matthew Culley, and I give it in his words. His letter is 
 dated August 17th, 1880 : 
 
 "According to a tradition, one of the rooms, a large and 
 gloomy apartment, in the oldest part of this castle (Coupland) is 
 haunted by a ghost in the shape of a 'White Lady.' 
 
 "As to who she is, wherefore she appears, or when she first 
 appeared, tradition is silent; but it is certain that half a century 
 ago the 'haunted room' at Coupland had as 'uncanny' a reputa- 
 tion as it has at present. Within my own memory, and indeed 
 quite recently, strange phenomena have been witnessed, and 
 many unaccountable sounds, such as wailing voices, knockings, 
 &c, have been heard at night by persons sleeping in the haunted 
 
 * Mr. Denhani told me that William Pattison, who contributed 
 several papers to the Table Book, went to London, and it was 
 believed died there. G. B. Richardson emigrated to Australia or 
 New Zealand. 
 
 | Perhaps cattle drank at it. On Wooler Common there was a 
 well of this description called " The Neatherd's Well," a neatherd 
 being employed in charge of the townspeople's cows. 
 
168 THE DBNHAM TRACTS. 
 
 room and in rooms close by; whilst during the last six or seven 
 years the White Lady herself is said positively to have been 
 seen on more than one occasion." 
 
 The Death of Jean Gordon. 
 
 The Gipsies, or Faas, from its proximity to their head- 
 quarters at Yetholm, greatly frequented Wooler, especially at 
 the two fairs, which offered excellent opportunities for the 
 disposal of their wares. On one of these statute anniversaries 
 one of the Faas stole a pair of shoes from a stall. The towns- 
 people, although some ascribed the ill- deed to the country folks, 
 broke out and carried the culprit to the mill-dam, which 
 branching off from Wooler water flows along the bottom of the 
 high bank on which the town is situated, and ducked her there 
 till she was next to dead among their hands. One of them had 
 gone so far as to set his foot on her to keep her down. When 
 the excitement subsided down she was drawn out, all be- 
 draggled with slime, and laid on a high stone on the wooded 
 bank above the mill-lead ; but she was too far gone for recovery, 
 and gave only a gasp or two and died. " Old William Bolam," 
 who was once a schoolmaster in the place, and who died in the 
 workhouse several years since, recollected seeing her in that 
 deplorable condition, and how before removal the mud had to 
 be washed from her clothes and bod}-. The Gipsies never 
 forgot this barbarous outrage, and vowed revenge ; and hence 
 a constant watch had to be kept on their movements for many 
 years, to prevent their taking similar "wild justice," for this 
 wicked maltreatment of one of the clan. "Within memory the 
 townspeople used to live in dread of them. The woman's name 
 was Jean Gordon, and she was married to a Faa.* She was a 
 relative of the famous Jean Gordon, who was equally cruelly 
 
 * The Falls (pronounced Faas) belonged to the family of the King 
 of the Yetholm Gipsies. 
 
BORDER SKETCHES OF FOLKLORE. 169 
 
 drowned by the mob at Carlisle. Till this day, whenever a 
 continuance of bad weather is experienced at the little town at 
 the foot of the Cheviots, old superstitious people say, " That's a 
 cloud for the death o' Jean Gordon," or, "A race of bad 
 weather will always hang over Wooler for the death o' Jean 
 Gordon, drowned in the mill-dam." 
 
 Silky— A Northumbrian Tradition. 
 
 " wha wad Imy a silken gown, 
 Wi* a poor broken heart." 
 
 Scots' Song. 
 
 Eighty or ninety years ago the inhabitants of the quiet village 
 of Black Heddon, near Stamfordham, and of the country round 
 about, were greatly annoyed by the pranks of a preternatural 
 being called Silky. This name it had obtained from its mani- 
 festing a predilection to make itself visible in the semblance 
 of a female dressed in silk. Many a time, when any of the 
 more timorous of the community had a night journey to per- 
 form, have they unawares and invisibly been dogged by this 
 spectral tormentor, who, at the dreariest part of the road, the 
 most suitable for thrilling surprises, would suddenly break 
 forth in dazzling splendour. If the person happened to be on 
 horseback, a sort of exercise for which she evinced a stronsr 
 partiality, she would unexpectedly seat herself behind, "rattling 
 in her silks." There, after enjoying a comfortable ride, with 
 instantaneous abruptness she would, like a thing destitute of 
 continuity, dissolve away and become incorporated with the 
 nocturnal shades, leaving the bewildered horseman in blank 
 amazement. 
 
 At Belsay, some two or three miles from Black Heddon, she 
 had a favourite resort. This was a romantic crag finely studded 
 with trees, under the gloomy umbrage of which, " like one for- 
 
170 THE DENHAM TRACTS. 
 
 lorn," she loved to wander all the live-long night. Here often 
 has the belated peasant beheld her dimly through the sombre 
 twilight, as if engaged in splitting great stones, or hewing with 
 many a stroke some stately " monarch of the grove." And 
 while he thus stood, and gazed, and listened to intimations, 
 impossible to be misapprehended, of the dread reality of that 
 mysterious being, concerning whom so various conjectures were 
 awake, all at once, excited by that wondrous agency, he would 
 have heard the howling of a resistless tempest rushing through 
 the woodland — the branches creaking in violent concussion — or 
 rent into fragments by the impetuous fury of the blast — while 
 to the eye not a leaf was seen to quiver, nor a pensile spray to 
 bend. 
 
 " All was delusion, nought was truth." 
 
 The bottom of this crag is washed by a picturesque lake or fish- 
 pond, at whose outlet is a waterfall, over which a venerable 
 tree, sweeping its umbrageous arms, adds impressiveness to the 
 scene. Amid the complicated limbs of this tree Silky possessed 
 a rude chair, where she was wont, in her moody moments, to 
 sit — wind-rocked — enjoying the rustling of the storm in the 
 dark woods, or the gush of the cascade as it ascended with 
 spirit-like fitfulness, during the pauses of the gale. It is due to 
 the present proprietor, Sir Charles M. L. Monck, Bart., of 
 Belsay Castle, to state that the tree so consecrated in the 
 sympathies and the terrors of the vicinity has been carefully 
 preserved. Though now no longer tenanted by its aerial 
 visitant, it yet spreads majestically its time-hallowed canopy 
 over the spot, awakening in the lore-versed rustic when the 
 winter's wind raves gusty and sonorous through its leafless 
 boughs, the soul harrowing recollection of the exploits of the 
 ancient fay ; but in the springtide beautiful with the full-flushed 
 verdure of that exuberant season, and recipient of the kindling 
 
BORDER SKETCHES OF FOLKLORE. 171 
 
 emotions of reverence and affection. It still bears the name of 
 " Silky's seat," in memory of its once wonderful occupant. 
 
 Silky exercised a marvellous influence over the brute creation. 
 Horses, which possess a discernment of spirits superior to man, 
 at least are more sharp-sighted in the dark, were in an extra- 
 ordinary degree sensitive of her presence and control. She 
 seems to have had a perverse pleasure in arresting these poor 
 defenceless animals while engaged in their labours. When 
 this misfortune occurred, there was no remedy brute force 
 could devise ; expostulation, soothing, whipping, and kicking 
 were all exerted in vain to make the restive beast resume the 
 proper direction. The ultimate resource, unless it might be 
 her whim to revoke the spell, was the magic-dispelling witch- 
 wood (mountain ash), which was of unfailing efficacy. One 
 poor wight, a farm servant, was once the selected victim of her 
 frolics. He had to go to a colliery at some distance for coals, 
 and it was late in the evening before he could return. Silky 
 waylaid him at a bridge, a " ghastly, ghost-alluring edifice," 
 since called " Silky's Brig," lying a little to the soutli of Black 
 Heddon, on tho road between that place and Stamfordham. 
 Just as he had reached " the height of that bad eminence," the 
 keystone, horses and cart became fixed and immoveable as fate. 
 And in that melancholy plight might both man and horses 
 have continued — quaking, and sweating, and stock-still — till 
 the morning light had thrown around them its mantle of pro- 
 tection, had not a neighbouring servant come up to the rescue, 
 who opportunely carried some of the potent witchwood about 
 his person. On the arrival of this seasonable aid, the perplexed 
 driver rallied his scattered senses, and the helpless animals being 
 duly seasoned after the fashion prescribed on such occasions, he 
 had the heartfelt satisfaction of seeing them apply themselves 
 with alacrity to the draught ; and in a short time both he and 
 the coals reached home in safety. Ever afterwards, however, 
 
172 THE DENHAM TRACTS. 
 
 as long as he lived, he took the precaution of rendering himself 
 spell-proof, b}' being furnished with a quantity of witch-wood, 
 by no means being disposed that Silky should a second time 
 amuse herself at his expense and that of his team. 
 
 She was capricious and wayward. Sometimes she installed 
 herself in the office of that old familiar Lar, Brownie, but with 
 characteristic misdirection, in a manner exactly the reverse of 
 that useful species of hobgoblin. And here it may be remarked, 
 that throughout her disembodied career, she can scarcely be said 
 to have performed one benevolent action for the sake of its moral 
 qualities. She had, from first to last, a latent hankering for 
 mischief, and gloried in withering surprises and unforeseen 
 movements. As is customary with that " sturdy fairy," as he is 
 designated by the great English Lexicographer (1), her works 
 were performed at night, or between the hours of sunset and 
 daydawn. If the good old dames had thoroughly cleaned their 
 houses, which country people make a practice of doing, 
 especially on Saturdays, so that they may have a comfortable 
 and decent appearance on Sunday, after they had retired to rest 
 Silky would silently have turned everything topsy-turvy, and the 
 morning presented a scene of indescribable confusion. On the 
 contrary if the house had been left in a disorderly state, a plan 
 which they generally found best to adopt, everything would 
 have been arranged with the greatest nicety. 
 
 At length a term had arrived to her erratic course, and both 
 she and the peaceably disposed inhabitants whom she disquieted 
 obtained the repose so long mutually desired. She abruptly 
 disappeared. It had long been surmised by those who paid 
 attention to those dark matters, that she was the troubled 
 phantom of some person who had died very miserable in conse- 
 quence of having great treasure, which before being overtaken 
 
 (1) Journey to the Western Islands, p. 171. 
 
BOEDER SKETCHES OF FOLKLORE. 173 
 
 by her mortal agony had not been disclosed, and on that account 
 she could not lie still in her grave ! About the period referred 
 to a domestic servant, being alone in one of the rooms of a 
 house at Black Heddon, was frightfully alarmed by the ceiling 
 above suddenly giving way, and something quite black and 
 . uncouth falling from it with a clash upon the floor. The servant 
 did not stay an instant to examine it, but at once fled to her 
 mistress screaming at the pitch of her voice, " The deevil's in 
 the house ! The deevil's in the house ! He's come through the 
 ceiling!" With this terrible announcement the whole family 
 were convoked, and great was the consternation at the idea of 
 the foe of mankind being amongst them in a visible form ; and 
 a considerable time elapsed before airy one could brace up 
 courage to face " the enemy," or be prevailed to go and inspect 
 the cause of alarm. At last the mistress, who happened to be 
 the most stout hearted, ventured into the room, when instead 
 of the personage on account of whom such awful apprehensions 
 were entertained, a great dog or calf's skin lay on the floor, 
 sufficiently black and uncomely, but filled with gold. After 
 this Silky was never more heard or seen. Her destiny was 
 accomplished — her spirit laid — and she now sleeps with her 
 ancestors as peacefully and unperturbed as do the degenerate 
 and unenterprising ghosts of modern days.. 
 
 Mr. Robert Kobson of Sunderland, county of Durham, com- 
 municated rough notes whence this sketch has been composed. 
 Another informant states that the house wherein this occurred 
 was at the time occupied by the Hepples, respectable yeomen at 
 the place, whose descendants are yet the proprietors, and who, 
 it is said, acquired a considerable sum from Silky's long hidden 
 treasure so unexpectedly brought to light. This has been im- 
 puted to many other prosperous men besides Mr. Hepple, and 
 not unfreqiicntly in a spirit of envy. Stephen Cochran, of 
 Clippeiis, in Renfrewshire, presented his relative, Wm. Cock- 
 
174 THE DENHAM TKACTS. 
 
 burn, of Caldoun, the ancestor of the Dundonald family, with 
 a large sum of money (it was said a skinful) for his good offices 
 in freeing him from a malignant charge of witchcraft, and this 
 was acknowledged by Thomas, the eighth earl, to have been the 
 foundation of the family (2) . We are told by an old authority 
 that " to labour and to be content with that a man hath is a 
 sweet life ; but he that findeth a treasure is above them 
 both" (3). 
 
 Some points of folklore may be here illustrated. Trees that 
 stretch their long arms across waterfalls, and flourish by main- 
 taining a perpetual struggle with the powers of nature amidst 
 elemental commotion, supply, it would appear, fit roosting places 
 for the spirits of darkness, and the ominous birds concerned in 
 their malpractices. 
 
 " The heron came from the witch-pule tree," 
 
 sings James Telfer ; and likewise Sir Walter Scott, 
 
 " Where o'er the cataract the oak 
 Lay slant, was heard the raven's croak." 
 
 In Barskeogh Wood, near Dairy, on the water of Ken, in 
 Galloway, " the clachan witches held their midnight revels by 
 the light of the hunter's moon ; and the famed sister of Lowran 
 Burn proudly rode on the branches of the forest ash that over- 
 hangs the roaring linn of Earlston ; while the young noviciates 
 in the mysteries of witchcraft merrily danced in the bosom 
 of the pool beneath, amid the white spray of the dashing 
 stream." Fairies, too, as Burns tells us, delight 
 
 " to stray and rove 
 Among the rocks and streams ; " 
 
 (2) Mitchell and Dickie's Philosophy of Witchcraft, p. 386. 
 Paisley, 1839. 
 
 (3) Ecclesiasticus, c. xl. r. 18. 
 
BORDER SKETCHES OF FOLKLORE. 175 
 
 and there has been heard amid the darkness " plitch platching 
 as it were o' some hundreds o' little feet i' the stream ; when a' 
 at yince the plitch -platching gae owre, and there was sic a queer 
 eiry nicker, as o' some hundreds o' creatures laughin' cam frae 
 the upper linn " (4). An old man in Wales had "often seen 
 the fairies at waterfalls ; particularly at that of Sewyd yr Rhyd 
 in Cwm Pergwm, Vale of Neath, where a road runs between 
 the fall and the rock. As he stood behind the fall they appeared 
 in all the colours of the rainbow, and their music mingled with 
 the noise of the water" (5). The celebrated fall of the Liffey, 
 in Ireland, near Ballymore Eustace, is named Pool-a-Phooka, 
 or Puck's Hole (6). "The Russians believe in a species of 
 water and wood maids called Rusalki. They are of a beautiful 
 form, with long green hair; they swing and balance themselves 
 on the branches of trees, bathe in lakes and rivers, play on the 
 surface of the water, and wring their locks on the green meads 
 at the water's edge" (7). 
 
 The power of evoking a magic tempest, which was only 
 
 " an enchanted show 
 With which the eyes mote have deluded been," 
 
 is one of the attributes of the beings not of this world. For thus 
 Oberon attempted to deter Huon of Bordeaux from proceeding 
 through the enchanted forest which offered the shortest passage 
 to Babylon. " For before you have left the wood he will cause 
 it so to rain on you, to blow, to hail, and -to make such right 
 marvellous storms that you will think the world is going to 
 end." But this was " nothing but a phantom and enchant- 
 
 (4) It. White in Richardson's Table Bool:, Leg. Div., ii. 137. 
 
 (5) Keightley's Fairy Mythology, p. 417. 
 
 (6) Mil., ]>. 371. 
 
 (7) //«'(/., i>. 191, from (irimm. 
 
176 THE DENHAM TRACTS. 
 
 ments" that the dwarf made (8). When the vicar of Dean 
 Prior's (Devon) is about to lay a ghost in a deep hollow at the 
 foot of a waterfall, called the Hound's Pool, as they enter the 
 wooded valley, " it seemed as if all the trees in the wood ' were 
 coming together,' so great was the wind "(9). It is said 
 that the walls of Fyvie Castle, Aberdeenshire, had stood for 
 seven years and a day, wall-wide, waiting for the arrival of 
 True Tammas (Thomas the Rhymer) to pronounce their fate. 
 " At length he suddenly appeared before the fair building, ac- 
 companied by a violent storm of wind and rain, which stripped 
 the surrounding trees of their leaves and shut the castle gates 
 with a loud crash. But while the tempest was raging on all 
 sides, it was observed that, close by the spot where Thomas 
 stood, there was not wind enough to shake a pile of grass or 
 move a hair of his head " (10). 
 
 Silk, as a spirit-raiment, has had a strong charm for the 
 popular mind, perhaps from its cleanliness being associated, like 
 the snowy robe of the ghost, with ideas of purity and innocence ; 
 or from its leaf-like fissle being judged akin to the tiptoe move- 
 ment of unhappy souls. Dr. Dee's Ariel was " a spiritual 
 creature, like a pretty girl of seven or nine years of age, attired 
 on her head, with her hair rolled up before and hanging down 
 behind, with a gown of silk, of changeable red and green, and 
 with a train" (M).* Mr. Campbell, in his Highland Tales, 
 vol. ii. p. 192, states that the miller's wife at Loch Xigdal, near 
 
 (8) Keightley's Fairy Mythology, p. 39. 
 
 (9) Folklore, N. and Q., p. 223. 
 
 (10) Chambers' Rhymes of Scotland, p. 8. 
 
 (11) Mack ay's Popular Delusions, i. p. 157. 
 
 * Cowley, as translated, Book of Plants, B. I, says cf spirits: 
 " Their subtle limbs silk, thin as air, arrays, 
 And therefore nought their rapid journey stays." 
 
BORDER SKETCHES OF FOLKLORE. 177 
 
 Skibo Castle, was one day favoured with a sight of the Banshie 
 of the lake. " She was sitting on a stone, quiet, and beauti- 
 fully dressed in a green silk dress, the sleeves of which were 
 curiously puffed from the wrists to the shoulders." Among the 
 wonderful relations of Glanvil, in his Saducismus Triumphalus, 
 of the drumming demon of Tedworth, the man-servant " heard 
 a rustling noise in his chamber, as if a person in silks was 
 moving up and down ; " and the maids also heard one "that 
 rustled about as if it had been dressed in silk/' The mansion 
 house of Houndwood, in Berwickshire, has attached to it a 
 family apparition called " Chappie." The servants were 
 annoyed with its pertinacious visits even in the daytime. 
 " Sometimes a knocking would be heard at the front door, 
 and if anyone went to open it, nobody could be seen ; except on 
 one occasion, when, on the servant opening the door, a grand 
 lady rushed past, and went up the passage with a majestic gait, 
 rustling in silks and satins ; but this lady was never afterwards 
 seen, either within or without the house " (12). Denton Hall, 
 near Newcastle, is regularly set down as haunted by a 
 female clad in rustling silks, and the spirit or goblin or 
 whatever it was that was embodied in these appearances was 
 familiarly known by the name of Silky. " There is some obscure 
 and dark rumour of secrets strangely obtained and enviously 
 betrayed by a rival sister, ending in deprivation of reason and 
 death; and the betrayer still walks by times in the deserted 
 halls which she has rendered tenantless, always prophetic of 
 disaster to those she encounters." " Midnight curtains have 
 been drawn aside by an arm in rustling silk " (13). " The 
 profligate Duke of Argyle, while residing at Chirton (near 
 
 (12) Hondorson's Rhymes of Berwickshire, p. 73. 
 
 (13) T. Doublcday in Richardson's Table Book, Leg. Div., iii. 
 p. 315. 
 
 VOL. II. N 
 
178 THE DENH AM TRACTS. 
 
 North Shields), in the reign of William III., had a mistress 
 who died very suddenly ; and, as the neighbouring gossips con- 
 cluded she had been murdered, her spirit ever after took its 
 nocturnal ramble, dressed in brown silk, in the shady avenue 
 that leads to Shields ; but in modern times this troubled spirit 
 seems to have retired to rest " (14). She is also said to have 
 rendered the mansion house untenantable by means of unearthly 
 noises. She is the third Silky on record. At Allanbank (or 
 Bighouse) , in Berwickshire, there is a famous ghost, endued with 
 similar attributes, called Pearlin' Jean. " In my vouth," says 
 Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, " Pearlin' Jean was the most re- 
 markable ghost in Scotland, and my terror when a child. Our 
 old nurse, Jenny Blackadder, had been a servant at Allanbank, 
 and often heard her rustling in silks up and down stairs and 
 along the passages. She never saw her, but her husband did. 
 She was a Frenchwoman, whom the first proprietor of Allan- 
 bank, then Mr. Stuart, met with at Paris, during his tour to 
 finish his education as a gentleman. Some people said she was 
 a nun, in which case she must have been a sister of charity, as 
 she appears not to have been confined to a cloister. After some 
 time young Stuart either became faithless to the lady or was 
 suddenly recalled to Scotland by his parents, and had got 
 into his carriage, at the door of the hotel, when his Dido 
 unexpectedly made her appearance, and, stepping on the 
 fore-wheel of the coach to address her lover, he ordered the 
 postillion to drive on ; the consequence of which was that the 
 lady fell, and one of the wheels going over her forehead killed her. 
 In the dusky autumnal evening, when Mr. Stuart drove under 
 the arched gateway of Allanbank, he perceived Pearlin' Jean 
 sitting on the top, her head and shoulders covered with blood. 
 After this, for many years, the house was haunted ; doors shut 
 
 (14) Mackenzie's Northumherland, ii. p. 456. 
 
BOEDER SKETCHES OF FOLKLORE. 179 
 
 and opened with great noise at midnight; the rustling of silks 
 and the pattering of high-heeled shoes were heard in bedrooms 
 and passages. Nurse Jenny said there were seven ministers 
 called in at one time to lay the spirit, ' but they did no muckle 
 good/ The picture of the ghost was hung up between those of 
 the lover and his lady, and kept her comparatively quiet ; but 
 when taken away she became worse-natured than ever. The 
 ghost was designated Pearlin, from always wearing a great 
 quantity of that sort of lace — a species of lace made of thread. 
 Nurse Jenny told me that when Thomas Blackadder was her 
 lover (I remember Thomas very well) they made an assignation 
 to meet one moonlight night in the orchard at Allanbank. True 
 Thomas, of course, was the first comer, and seeing a female in 
 a light-coloured dress at some distance, he ran forward with 
 open arms to embrace his Jenny ; when lo and behold ! as he 
 neared the spot where the figure stood, it vanished ; and pre- 
 sently he saw it again at the very end of the orchard, a 
 considerable way off. Thomas went home in a fright; but 
 Jenny, who came last, and saw nothing, forgavo him, and 
 they were married. Many years after this, about the year 
 1790, two ladies paid a visit to Allanbank — I think the house 
 was then let — and passed the night there. They had never 
 heard a word about the ghost ; but they were disturbed the 
 whole night with something walking backwards and forwards in 
 their bed-chamber. This I had from the best authority " (15). 
 Sir Robert Stuart of Allanbank was created baronet in 1697, 
 so that it must have been previous to that time that Jean died. 
 
 We cannot assign to these traditions a far back date; although 
 they refer to a period when silk, as an article of dress, was so 
 seldom seen, that it took the attention in country places. We 
 find a lady's silk dress in the Breton Lai of Ywenec. Ladies 
 
 (l.'>) Mrs. Crowe's Night-side of Nature. 
 
 N 2 
 
] 80 THE DENHAM TRACTS. 
 
 wore silk mantles at Kenilworth Castle in 1286 ; but it was 
 not till the reign of James T., in England, that it came into 
 general use. Massinger's " City Madam " wore 
 
 " Sattin on solemn days, 
 It being for the City's honour that 
 There should be a distinction made between 
 The wife of a patrician and a plebeian." 
 
 In the time of Charles II. Secretary Pepys' wife dresses in a 
 tabby or waved silk. In the year 1668 the tide of fashion set 
 entirely in favour of French fabrics, so that it became a com- 
 plaint that " the women's hats were turned into hoods made of 
 French silk, whereby every maid-servant became a standing 
 revenue to the French King of one-half of her wages " (16). 
 This trade, we learn from the Guardian of September 25th, 
 1713, was interrupted by Marlborough's wars; and it was 
 apprehended that if peace was then concluded, " in all pro- 
 bability half the looms in Spittlefields would be laid down, and 
 our ladies be again clothed in French silk." " In the good old 
 times," says Washington Irving, " that saw my aunt in the 
 heyday of youth, a fine lady was a most formidable animal, and 
 required to be approached with the same awe and devotion that 
 a Tartar feels in the presence of the Grand Lama. If a gentle- 
 man offered to take her hand, except to help her into a carriage, 
 or lead her into a drawing-room, such frowns ! such a rustling of 
 brocade and taffeta ! " (17). Hence the poets of these days in 
 inviting from the court to the cottage, inquire in accents 
 winning as they are musical : 
 
 " O Nancy wilt thou go with me, 
 
 Nor sigh to leave the flaunting tcwn ? 
 Can silent glens have charms for thee, 
 
 The lowly cot and russet gown ? 
 
 (16) Silk Manufactures, p. 25. 
 
 (17) Salmagundi, April 25, 1807. 
 
BORDER SKETCHES OF FOLKLORE. 181 
 
 No longer drest in silken sheen, 
 
 No longer deck'd with jewels rare, 
 Say canst thou quit each courtly scene, 
 
 Where thou wert fairest of the fair ? " 
 
 In Scotland, the upper classes alone were privileged to 
 " wear claithes of silk." Prohibitory edicts extend from 
 the time of James I., 1429, down to 1673, in the reign 
 of Charles II. In 1621 it was statuted " That no servants, 
 men or women, weare any clothing, except those that are made 
 of cloath, fusteans, canvas, or stuffs made in the countrey. And 
 that they shall have no silk upon their cloathes ; except silk 
 buttons, and button holes ; and silk garters without pearling or 
 roses, under the paine of one hundreth markes, tolies qaoties." 
 It thus was felt as a terrible offence to the aristocratic circles of 
 Edinburgh, and became a town talk, when a girl of the city in 
 1750 presumed to wear a silk gown ! (18). It was long before 
 this innovation became general. Thus, about 1724, sings the 
 " country lass : " 
 
 " Although my gown be homespun grey, 
 My skin it is as soft 
 As them that satin weeds do wear, 
 And carry their heads aloft." 
 
 Silk dresses were inherited as heirlooms for generations. 
 
 " For her gown some ancient matron quakes, 
 Her gown of silken woof, all figured o'er 
 With roses white, far larger than the life, 
 On azure ground — her grandani's wedding garb, 
 Old as the year' when Sherifl'muir was fought." 
 
 Grahame. 
 
 I shall not venture to trace this luxury northwards into 
 Northumberland. As we learn from the Spectator, July 
 
 (18) Chambers' Traditions of Edinburgh, ii. p. 55. 
 
182 THE DENHAM TRACTS. 
 
 28, 1711, the fashions of the metropolis did not then travel 
 rapidly as now, but crept by slow degrees into the pro- 
 vinces. " A fashion makes its progress much slower into 
 Cumberland than into Cornwall. I have heard in particular 
 that the Steenkirk (neckcloth) arrived but two months ago at 
 Newcastle, and that there are several commodes in those parts 
 which are worth taking a journey thither to see." This at 
 least we know, that a silk dress had reached North Shields in the 
 reign of William III., and the degraded wearer, like a Scottish 
 damsel two hundred years before her, paid the penalty of her 
 folly. 
 
 " My kirtill was of lincum green, 
 
 Weill lacit with silken passnients rair ; 
 
 God gif I had nerer prideful been, 
 
 For fadit is my yellow hair. 
 
 " When I was young I had great stait, 
 Weill cherishit baith with less and mair ; 
 For shame now steill I off the gait, 
 For fadit is my yellow hair ! " 
 
 N.B. — In an article in the Transactions of the Tyneside 
 Naturalists' Field-Club, for 1861, p. 93, on "Local Super- 
 stititions at Stamfordham," bv the Rev. J. F. Bigge, M.A., it 
 is said, " The renowned Silky has not been heard of for some 
 years. I was once attending a very old woman, named 
 Pearson, at Welton Mill, the foundations of which, if they exist, 
 are at the bottom of one of the Whittle Dean reservoirs. The 
 old woman told me, a few days before her death, that she had 
 seen Silky the night before, sitting at the bottom of her bed, 
 dressed in silk." 
 
BORDER SKETCHES OF FOLKLORE. 183 
 
 The Gbay Man of Bet-lister. 
 
 " An old rude ' tale ' that fitted well 
 The ruin wild and hoary." 
 
 Coleridge. 
 
 It was at the gray of the evening twilight, about half a 
 century ago, that a stripling held his way towards the castle of 
 Bellister, with the view of entering into service there. Having 
 crossed the Tyne at Haltwhistle, he found the darkness in- 
 creasing fast ; and although the distance he had to travel was 
 not great, yet in those days bad companions were more common 
 than welcome on the unfrequented roads after nightfall. Leaving 
 the ferry, he passed a thicket of willow bushes, and then his 
 route lay along a broken road, which he had been directed to 
 follow as that which would conduct him to the castle. He had 
 not proceeded far when he descried a traveller at some little 
 distance in advance ; a circumstance rather singular, as he had 
 tarried for a few minutes at the ferry, and no one had come 
 over for some time previous. The youth, a stranger in the 
 place, and looking forward with solicitude towards the new 
 scene of his labours, soon overcame the mysterious feeling, to 
 which this idea gave rise, in the prospect of relief from his own 
 anxious thoughts presented to him for some part of the journey. 
 He therefore quickened his pace, and when sufficiently near 
 shouted to the unknown individual to stop. But the stranger paid 
 no regard — he neither stopped nor looked behind. The lad had 
 now approached within a few yards, yet with the utmost exertion 
 he could not overtake him ; for he passed forward with superhuman 
 rapidity, gliding rather than walking over the surface. An un- 
 pleasant sensation of fear crept over the youth, which was not a 
 little increased, by a closer inspection, so far as the dubious 
 lio-ht enabled, of the object of his misgivings. His head was 
 
184 THE DENHAM TKACTS. 
 
 uncovered, and his long hair hung behind, white as the frosts 
 of winter. He was wrapt in a long gray cloak reaching to 
 his heels, and he appeared to carry a small bundle under his 
 arm, concealed by his upper vestments. So occupied had the 
 youth been in the struggle, that he did not at first perceive that 
 he had now reached the broken gateway of the old castle 
 of Bellister. At the instant, when its dark mass became 
 evident through the gloom, the mysterious figure unexpectedly 
 stood still, and turning abruptly round upon the youth revealed 
 the awful nature of the fellowship which he, in the simplicity 
 of his heart, was so eager to obtain. Death had set his pallid 
 seal on that grisly countenance, and a bloody gash that ran 
 across it heightened the expression of ghastliness imprinted 
 there ! The thick beard was dripping with blood, and the fore- 
 part of the garments was dyed with the ensanguined stream. 
 The being fixed its large lustreless eyes upon the youth, and 
 pointing with a menacing scowl towards the dilapidated ruin 
 melted silently away. 
 
 It was a scene of the deepest horror. For some time he stood 
 spell-bound to the spot, gazing into the vacant air that gave 
 back no image, but extended itself in limitless expansion into a 
 vast, terrible, all-absorbing gulf that seemed to invite him 
 forward in pursuit of the dread, unsubstantial essences that 
 roamed its dim and dismal depths. Rallying his scattered for- 
 titude, his first idea was that of self-preservation. His new 
 home was nigh, and thither, scarcely conscious of the action, he 
 betook himself. The old mistress was the only one of the family 
 within, and to her he revealed the horrifying apparition he had 
 witnessed. The old lady was much concerned. Of the existence 
 of a spirit near the place she was fully aware ; she had heard of 
 it from others wiser and older than herself, members of a gene- 
 ration of which there were now few survivors ; and there were 
 several instances in which it had made itself visible to persons 
 
BORDER SKETCHES OF FOLKLORE. 185 
 
 whom she well knew. Such a thing never occurred, she said, 
 without some accompanying calamity, and when, as on the 
 present occasion, there were manifested tokens of a vindictive 
 disposition on the spirit's part, the danger was near and alarm- 
 ing. It came to pass as the old lady feared and predicted. That 
 very evening the unfortunate lad was seized with a severe 
 illness, and before next morning was a corpse. 
 
 When the castle was occupied by the Blenkinsops, its ma- 
 norial lords, many, many centuries ago, a wandering minstrel, 
 says tradition, sought the protection of its roof far on in the 
 evening, and the humble request was granted, and the aged 
 musician was invited to the family hearth. The days of high- 
 souled chivalry and of generous feeling had not then departed, 
 when, not yet knowing " the bleak freezings of neglect," the 
 minstrol obtained a ready admittance to the society of the gentle 
 and the august, and his tale and harp found favourable audience 
 with all. 
 
 " High placed in hall, a welcome guest, 
 
 He poured to lord and lady gay, 
 
 The unpremeditated lay." 
 
 But the hospitable boon had not been long conceded ere dark 
 suspicions began to rankle in the breast of the Lord of Bellister. 
 He was at feud with a neighbouring boron, who scrupled not to 
 employ the basest means for gratifying his rancour. In the 
 appearance of this stranger, at such an untimely hour, there 
 appeared to him some reason to dread the intrusion of a spy, or 
 the disguised agent of his rival, to execute some revengeful plot. 
 Distrust, therefore, sat upon the countenance of the baron,* and 
 
 * " Some gentlemen of the north are called to this day barons," 
 says Grey, in his Chorographia, 1649. The Blenkinsops of Bellister 
 wore entitled to the designation of baron only in courtesy. By a 
 similar token of respect the Whitfields of Whitfield, in the same 
 
186 THE DENHAM TKACTS. 
 
 as the cordiality with which he had been received declined, a 
 visible constraint gathered over the minstrel's features, which 
 soon communicated itself to the entire circle. 
 
 " By fits less frequent from the crowd 
 Was heard the burst of laughter loud. 
 For still, as squire and archer stared 
 On that dark face, and matted beard, 
 
 Their glee and game declined." 
 
 Hence it was with more than customary alacrity that the signal 
 for withdrawal was obeyed. After the company had retired, 
 the Lord of JBellister continued to pace his apartment, filled with 
 perplexing anxieties. The image of the harper, too abject to 
 justify his fears, still haunted him, and the oft experienced 
 perfidy of his deadly foe. At length suspense rose into passion. 
 He summoned his attendants and directed them to bring the 
 harper into his presence. But how was every doubt and 
 jealousy anew inflamed when they found the chamber that he 
 had occupied empty, and the inmate gone ? Either he had 
 augured treachery from his entertainer, or he was conscious 
 that the guilty errand on which he had been sent was detected. 
 In the mind of the baron his flight only served to confirm the 
 unfavourable ideas that he had been led to conceive. The 
 bloodhounds were ordered out, and instant pursuit after the 
 fugitive commenced, the baron himself leading a band of his 
 followers. The bloodhounds were soon upon his track, and 
 rapidly outstripped the vengeance of their exasperated master. 
 They came up with the poor old minstrel hard by the willow 
 
 vicinity, transmitted to the latest generation the local title of yearl, 
 i.e. earl ; which, after they became extinct, passed to Whitfield of 
 Clargill, whose daughter and heiress — married to a Dr. Graham — 
 was called Countess of Clargill. 
 
BORDER SKETCHES OF FOLKLORE. 187 
 
 trees near the banks of the Tyne, and tore him to pieces before 
 any of the party had reached him. 
 
 Remorse for the barbarous outrage seized the baron, but the 
 deed of violence was irremediable. Whenever after the sunset 
 hour he took his way to the castle the fate of the hapless 
 minstrel rose in terror before his eyes, ana the visible shape of 
 the murdered man attended him home. The baron slept with 
 his fathers, and likewise all that race. But the injured spirit 
 still frequented its ancient circuit — unsatisfied and unappeased. 
 At some periods it was more than usually outrageous ; its 
 efforts to attract notice became more assiduous, and the 
 appearances that it assumed more terrific. This agitation and 
 inquietude were always found to be the prelude of some im- 
 pending misfortune to the house of Bellister and its dependents, 
 between whose fate and its own there had been induced an 
 inseparable bond.* 
 
 * Similar to this is the Irish and Gaelic superstition of the Banshee, 
 or attendant fairy-wife of families of the pure stock, whose office it 
 was to announce, by her wailing, the approaching death of some one 
 of the destined race. 
 
 " To me, my sweet Kathleen, the Benshce has cried, 
 And I die — ere to-morrow I die ; 
 This rose thou hast gathered, and laid by my side 
 Will live, my child, longer than I " 
 
 Smyth. 
 
 According to Delrio, a spectral woman in mourning attire was wont 
 to appear in the castle of an illustrious family in Bohemia previous to 
 the death of its mistress. The Macleans of Loch Buy are thus 
 premonished by the spirit of one of their ancestors. " Before the 
 death of any of his race, the phantom chief gallops along the sea- 
 lieach near to the castle, announcing the event by cries and lamenta- 
 tions" (Scott's Demanvloyt/, &v., p. 341.) Thus also the family of 
 
188 THE DENHAM TRACTS. 
 
 The Gray Man no longer appears at Bellister nor traverses 
 the broken pathway near which the clump of willows still 
 responds in sad murmurs to the wizard blast of evening. But 
 Bellister and its vicinity continue to be a haunted and forbidden 
 place after nightfall. The rustic passes it with a beating heart ; 
 the schoolboy's bravery is over and his merriment hushed till 
 it is by ; and the rider, trusting neither his eye nor his ear, 
 applies the spur to his steed and hurries past. The dread of an 
 unexpiated crime and of a mystery unrevealed hangs unlifted 
 from the spot ; and nature, as she spreads .the pall of midnight 
 over the lonesome way and the gloomy ruin, and as the sweep 
 of the rushing river combines with the moaning breeze and the 
 owl's funeral scream, seems to sympathise with the peasant's 
 awe and approve his reverence for the life of a fellow-being. 
 
 The jottings of this Northumbrian ghost story were com- 
 municated by Mr. William Pattison, a native of the district in 
 which the castle is situated. Bellister Castle stands on an 
 artificial mount, on the southern side of the Tyne, opposite to 
 
 Rothiemurcus had the Bodach na Dun, or the Ghost of the Hill ; 
 Kinchardine the Spectre of the Bloody Hand — 
 
 " With Highland broad sword, targe, and plaid, 
 And fingers red with gore." 
 
 Gartinbeg House was haunted by Bodach Gartin, and Tulloch Gorm 
 by Maug Molaeh, or the Girl with the Hairy Left Hand (Pennant). 
 And like to these were the " White Lady of the House of Branden- 
 burg," and the fairy Melusine, who usually prognosticated the 
 recurrence of mortality to sonic noble family of Poitou. Prince, in 
 his Worthies of Deron, records the appearance of a white bird per- 
 forming the same office for the worshipful lineage of Oxenham 
 (Croker's Fairy Legends, p. 126). Brand identifies these with 
 wraiths, but they had a general commission, whereas the "warning 
 spirit " was a family appurtenance. 
 
BORDER SKETCHES OF FOLKLORE. 189 
 
 Haltwhistle, and was surrounded by a broad fosse. It has been 
 an irregular structure, and now consists of a rude and 
 crumbling mass of ruins, overshadowed by an enormous 
 sycamore. Being the seat of a younger branch of the Blenkin- 
 sops, it was the property of Thomas Blenkinsop 1553, and of 
 George 1568. At present the castle and estate belong to the 
 Bacon family.* 
 
 * Mackenzie's Northumberland, ii. p. 316. 
 
XVII. 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS OF NORTH OF ENGLAND 
 FOLKLORE. 
 
 Legexds of Nafferton. 
 
 There are two legends about Nafferton ; one to Nafferton 
 Castle, or Nafferton Old Hall, built by Philip de Ulecote, 
 concerns Long Lonkin ; the other, located at Nafferton Hall, a 
 more recent structure, is a ghost story of a murdered pedlar. 
 
 Nafferton, in the parish of Ovingham, "lies immediately 
 north of Ovington, from which it is separated by a small stream 
 which joins the rivulet flowing through Whittle Dean." Philip 
 de Ulecote, a favourite of King John, commenced the erection 
 of the castle, taking the materials from the Roman wall in the 
 vicinity. He was not permitted to finish the structure, and the 
 dismantled ruin still remains much in the same state in which 
 it was left by the workmen in 1217. " The building consisted 
 of a keep, twenty feet square, and two outer balies, of moderate 
 dimensions, placed on the summit of a gentle slope. There was 
 no natural protection on the west, nor would it have been easy 
 to make one of a formidable character. At present the remains 
 of Philip de Ulecote's castle lie screened from passing observa- 
 tion by the surrounding plantations ; though it is probable that 
 in the winter season they may be discerned through the leafless 
 trees as the traveller journeys along the high road contiguous, 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS OF NORTH OF ENGLAND FOLKLORE. 191 
 
 leading from Haddon-on-the-Wall to Corbrirlge." * I am 
 informed that the moat can be traced on three sides of the 
 building. 
 
 It is with this ruin that the Northumbrian version of the 
 " Ballad of Lammikin," corrupted into Long Lonkin, has 
 acquired a local association. As the cattle never was inhabited, 
 unless as forming a receptacle of robbers, the popular tradi- 
 tion which I have to relate is manifestly apocryphal in so far 
 as it relates to Nafferton. The following narratives relating to 
 both mansions I obtained in 1844 from an old man named 
 Forster, in Newcastle, the descendant of one of the tenants of 
 the Derwentwater family. 
 
 A lady, courted by a gentleman named Long Lonkin (whom 
 the Northumbrian ballad makes a moss-trooper), preferred the 
 lord of Nafferton, whose circumstances made him a more 
 desirable match. One child blessed the marriage. Long 
 Lonkin vowed to be revenged, and, to accomplish his purpose, 
 attached to his interest the child's maid, with whom he con- 
 certed his measures. His vengeance was most bitter, for he 
 had determined to stab both the mother and her offspring. It 
 happened that the lord of the place had occasion to proceed to 
 London on business, and Lonkin, apprised of his approaching 
 absence, came in the evening and was admitted by the 
 treacherous maid. Tn order to induce the lady to descend 
 from an upper chamber, by the advice of the maid he pricked 
 the child till it cried, and then a second time till it screamed. 
 The mother called down to the maid to appease the child, but 
 she exclaimed that she could not — she would have to come 
 
 herself. 
 
 " I can't still him ladie, 
 Till you come down yoursell." 
 
 * Hartshorne's Memoirs of the History and Antiquities of Northum- 
 berland, ii. pp. 237, 238, 
 
192 TEE DENHAM TRACTS. 
 
 Lonkin pricked the child a third time, and the poor mother 
 appeared on the scene, and was killed as well as her child. 
 
 The Lord of Nafferton had not proceeded far on his journey 
 when an impression took hold of his mind that all was not 
 right at home; Two of the ballads tell how this alarm was 
 created. The rings on his fingers were bursting in twain, and 
 the silver buttons of his coat would not stay on. Returning 
 with all speed, he called to the servants within to let down the 
 drawbridge, and it being done he was admitted. When Long 
 Lonkin heard the noise of the coach passing over the bridge he 
 sought means to escape ; but the bridge was secured, and as he 
 could not get across the moat he fled to a dean below the castle, 
 in which flows the Whittle Burn, and took refuge in a large 
 tree that overhung a deep pool in the water. When the lord 
 of the place entered his apartments a horrible scene of carnage 
 was revealed, and the guilty maid did not conceal by whose 
 agency it had been effected. The murderer was sought for the 
 whole night, but it was not till morning that he was detected, 
 concealed among the tree branches. The outraged husband 
 called on him to descend, but he refused. He then threatened 
 to shoot him if he did not surrender, but Lonkin recklessly 
 leapt into the black boiling pool beneath, and sunk, never to 
 rise. This pool, now called Long Lonkin's Pool, the country 
 people declare is bottomless. A good swimmer had dived into 
 it from the crags on both sides and had found no bottom, and 
 it was only by great exertions that he escaped the fate of 
 Lonkin. Some suppose that there is a spring at the bottom of 
 it, for in the extremest cold it is never frozen over ; but this 
 circumstance others account for from a weill, or continuous 
 eddy, being in the middle of it. Long Lonkin's tree was cut 
 down thirty or forty years previous to 1844. 
 
 There are at least seven versions of the ballad relating to this 
 " ogre," as Professor Aytoun designated Lonkin, or Lammikin, 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS OF NOETH OP ENGLAND FOLKXOBE. 193 
 
 with a variety of other aliases. In most of these the murderer 
 is hanged, and his accomplice is burned at the stake. In one 
 he is " boiled in a pot full of lead." The Scots versions make 
 Lammikin the architect of a castle ; sometimes it is Buncle 
 Castle, Berwickshire, " Lord Weire's Castle," " Lord Wearie's 
 Castle," the Castle of " Balwearie," " Prime Castle," which 
 he built up, but for his labour "payment got nane." It was 
 for this wrong that he " brewed the black revenge " that 
 wrought out such a fatal catastrophe. 
 
 The New Hall at Nafferton, according to the narrator's 
 statement, was for a time an occasional residence * of the 
 Derwentwater (Radcliffe) family, who left it for Dilston Hall, 
 after its re-edification in 1768. When this old man was 
 acquainted with it, it had become a farmhouse. When occu- 
 pied by one in that line of life, strange things were seen about 
 the place, and most unaccountable noises were heard. The 
 apparitions were most rampant when a child was to be born, 
 or any one was to die, or as preliminaries to any fatal accident, 
 and they took the forms of a white weasel, a white hen, 
 or a white rabbit, and sometimes of a person without the 
 head dressed in white. Rappings were customary at the 
 windows, and uproars in various quarters mingled with loud 
 shrieks. Doors would open without cause, and would 
 not shut. The farmer, who appears to have been a recent 
 incomer, accommodated himself to these disturbances as best 
 ho could, till one night they became insufferable. He slept in 
 
 * I merely give the narrator's statement, and I am not sure of its 
 accuracy. In 1677 Allan Swinburne, of Nafferton, gent, was a 
 Roman Catholic recusant (Depositions from York Castle, Surtees 
 Soc, p. 228). Dec. 19, 1688, Edmond Johnson, a Roman Catholic 
 priest, depones that he was received in that month at Mr. 
 Swinburn's, of Naferton (p. 280). 
 
 VOL,. II. o 
 
194 THE DENHAM TRACTS. 
 
 an upper room near the " leads." From the door of this room 
 a stair conducted to the " leads," round which one could walk, 
 access being obtained to this outer area by another door at the 
 stair-top. On this occasion the commotion became so active 
 that he afterwards declared, in consonance with his agricultural 
 ideas, that if ever so many " trace-chains " had been trailed 
 across the floor, they would not have created a noise so aggra- 
 vating. As if this was not sufficient, something Like a skeel * 
 or cog turned on its side commenced rolling down the stairs 
 on the outside, and played " bump " against the door of his 
 room, as if it would smash it to pieces. The noise inside 
 appeared to proceed from and retire to a cavity in his room 
 covered by a hearthstone, called the " Priest's Hole." To 
 ascertain that no one had entered from the leads, he went up 
 the stair and examined the door above, but found it shut. 
 When he returned again to his sleeping apartment, the advanc- 
 ing and retreating noises recommenced in the direction of the 
 Priest's Hole. Determined to be at the bottom of this annoy- 
 ance, he called his brother to his assistance there and then, and 
 they took up the hearthstone. Beneath it there was an accu- 
 mulation of rubbish, broken bricks, &c, as if it had been in- 
 tentionally filled up. They got a spade and a bag, and emptied 
 the space of its contents, until they reached a flagged recess, 
 surrounded at the sides by a stone seat. This was the hiding- 
 place of the priest on any dangerous emergency, and there 
 generally was one of these concealed compartments in the 
 houses of the gentry of the old Roman Catholic persuasion. 
 The operators having cleared this out were about to desist, 
 
 * Skeel, a cylindrical wooden vessel for carrying milk or water, 
 with an upright handle made of one of the staves in plu.ee of a 
 bow. Isl. " Skiola," a milk-pail. Sw. " Skal," "a bowl. — Bro.ckett's 
 Glossary. 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS OF NORTH 01' ENGLAND FOLKLORE. 195 
 
 for there was nothing in this to account for the noises, but they 
 imagined that they twice heard a voice urging them to dig on. 
 On striking the flags of the floor, one sounded as if covering a 
 hollow ; and on removing this they gained access to a second 
 apartment, stuffed with shavings and stable manure. This was 
 also flagged, and pursuing similar tactics, they were admitted 
 to a third place of retreat, which was in like manner filled with 
 shavings and " horse muck ; " and while emptying it they came 
 upon a shirt and a nightcap. The shirt was all bloody where 
 the bowels in a living body would have been situated when it 
 was worn. There was no skeleton nor any human remains ; 
 but there was an oven, in which any vestige of humanity might 
 have been consumed. It is needless to comment on the unlike- 
 lihood of the articles of clothing being neglected by those who 
 took so many precautions to have their crime concealed. Tho 
 material of the shirt when taken up appeared like new linen, 
 and the farmer was going to send it to the factor, but when he 
 tried it, after being exposed to the atmosphere, it had become 
 like " burnt tinder." 
 
 The farmer now began to question an old man who had long 
 dwelt at the place if there could be any reasonable explanation 
 of what ho had witnessed. The old man thought there was. In 
 the interval between the Radcliffes' occupancy and its being 
 converted into a farmhouse, and that was a considerable time 
 before this occurrence, a man had kept an inn in the hall, and 
 let out the rooms for the accommodation of shooters during the 
 fowling season. Once on a time there came a "pethcrt," or 
 pedlar, to lodge there, who having never more been heard 
 tell of, there were strong surmises of his having been murdered, 
 and many of the old coal-pits thereabouts were searched for his 
 body, without any result. When suspicion had been allayed, it 
 was observed that the innkeeper's daughters began to dress in 
 garments made of an expensive material, which girls in their 
 
 o 2 
 
196 THE DBNHAM TRACTS. 
 
 station were not in the habit to wear, but which corresponded 
 with some of those which the missing packman had been 
 accustomed to carry. But this elevation was but transient; 
 " they did little good ; everything went against them, and they 
 became ruined," said the old man, with a satisfied air, in sum- 
 ming up. 
 
 A well-told story of a pedlar murdered in a lone farmhouse 
 above Rothbury, whose ghost haunted the perpetrator to her 
 dying day, may be seen in W. A. Chatto's Rambles on the 
 Scottish Border, pp. 93, 94. James Hogg in one of his ballads 
 gives the tale of the murder of the " Thirlestane Pedlar," and its 
 singular discovery. Thirlestane is situated near Primside 
 Loch, Yetholm. Mr. Robert White, of date October 17th, 
 1861, writes : " Similar stories to that of the Thirlestane Pedlar 
 exist in Northumberland. Tradition speaks of a packman being 
 murdered in the same way at Ray Mill, near Whelpington. 
 Poor fellows ! they would for the most part have some money 
 and goods upon them ; and this might induce rogues to deprive 
 them of life, more especially as the cruel deed might not easily 
 be discovered. 
 
XVIII. 
 
 LEGENDS RESPECTING HUGE STONES. 
 
 " Oh ! make his tomb where mortal eye, 
 Its buried wealth may ne'er descry. 
 Years roll away — oblivion claims 
 Her triumph o'er heroic names ; 
 And hands profane disturb the clay 
 That once was fired with glory's ray ; 
 And avarice from their secret gloom, 
 Drags even the treasures of the tomb. ! 
 
 Hemana. 
 
 " What hath the miner found ? 
 Relic or treasure, giant sword of old, 
 Gems bedded deep, rich veins of burning gold ? " • 
 
 Ibid. 
 
 " This is fairy gold, boy, and 'twill prove so We are lucky, boy, 
 and to be so still requires nothing but secresy." 
 
 Shakespeare's " Winter's Tale." 
 
 " The taste for gold everywhere precedes the desire of instruction, 
 
 and a taste for researches into antiquity." 
 
 Humboldt. 
 
 A large stone in the middle of a field, or laid in cumbrous 
 bulk by a pathway side, has little to commend itself to the 
 attention of the passer-by beyond the conjectures that may be 
 raised as to the causes that have detached such a huge mass 
 from its parent, rock and conveyed it to the situation that it 
 
198 THE DENHAM TEACTS. 
 
 occupies. To the individuals, however, under whose recogni- 
 tion it has habitually fallen during a lifetime spent in its neigh- 
 bourhood, it possesses an interest due to something more than 
 to a mere aggregation of unconscious matter transported from 
 its parent site by some unknown operation of nature. Besides 
 serving as the emblem that recalls many a scene of youthful 
 frolic — many an hour of " perfect gladsomeness " spent around 
 its base in the " careless hour," which even to the busiest 
 affords a lucid interval — it, in all likelihood, has become inter- 
 woven with their higher principles, the reverence with which 
 they regard things of ancient date, and the veneration attached 
 to the works and memories of their sires. These sympathies it 
 has enlisted in its favour from certain presumed purposes it 
 may have served in the economy of their remote ancestors, or 
 from some history " passing strange," of which it is the 
 memorial. Perhaps it stands as one of those primitive land- 
 marks, which it would be sacrilege to remove ; perhaps it is the 
 trophy of some old battlefield, memorable in proportion to the 
 carnage with which it was bedewed and the obstinacy with 
 which it was contested ; perhaps reared by the might of armies 
 over the tomb of some ancient chieftain whose " soul brightened 
 in danger " — in the days of yore, ere an oblivious generation 
 had forgotten the story — it bore a name " at which the world 
 grew pale ; " or perhaps it was the rude and unhewn altar 
 on which, during the days of heathen idolatry, the Druid 
 priest offered cruel and detestable sacrifice to sanguinary 
 divinities, and from the recesses of the sacred grove, with 
 which it might have been environed, promulgated his de- 
 crees of horror and of blood. The general opinion, however, 
 with regard to any unusually bulky stone which the strength 
 and means of the agriculturist cannot remove beyond the 
 precincts of his field, or which, variegated with the accumulated 
 lichens of centuries, catches the eye in solitary massiveness 
 
LEGENDS RESPECTING HtJGE STONES. 199 
 
 upon the waste, is that it marks the spot where " bones of 
 mighty chiefs lie hid " — men who, like the northern Vikings, 
 had their ill-gotten booty inhumed with them in order that 
 their posterity, with no other heritage than the sword, might 
 not indulge in disgraceful inaction, or sully the fierce fame of 
 their ruthless race. It is also an accredited belief that, in the 
 troublous times with which past history teems, many people 
 were constrained to adopt the means of concealment, which the 
 coverts of such stones offered, to secure their valuables from 
 marauding Dane, or Scot, or Pict, or Saxon, till more pros- 
 perous times should dawn, and they, coming back from long 
 exile or from the battlefield, should possess their patrimonial 
 property in peace. But the expected calm returned not — or 
 the owner having fallen in distant lands, the prospect of his 
 native scenes never gladdened his bosom more ; and his 
 relinquished wealth lies mouldering and gathering dross in the 
 fields from which hard industry had wrung it, excluded from 
 all benefits that it might confer as a portion of the circulating 
 medium. 
 
 In consequence of such various surmises, while these stones 
 on some occasions awaken misgivings from the wild tales asso- 
 ciated with them, they have likewise become themes of livelier 
 interest, from the incentives that they supply to avarice, as 
 being the depositories of unsunned treasures. But fearful bar- 
 riers, sufficient to deter the devoutest champion in the cause of 
 Mammon, separate the eagerness of adventurers and " the all- 
 wished for gold." Argus-eyed monsters, more hideous and 
 dread than Demogorgon, have had it entrusted to their vigilant 
 superintendence, and spells which baffle human ingenuity and 
 might to unlock have interposed their potent seal against all 
 attempts to recall the buried stores to their legitimate purposes. 
 And even though these bugbears be disregarded as fictions of 
 a terrified imagination, the uncertainty of money-finding is so 
 
200 THE DENHAM TEACTS. 
 
 proverbial, and the indications of its existence are so deceptive, 
 that even the most enthusiastic votary of the trade seldom 
 ventures upon its practice without some more certain intima- 
 tions than the floating traditions of a past age. How then shall 
 it be determined that his labour shall not be disconcerted — the 
 true period for securing the prize has arrived — and that his 
 hopes are not placed on perishable foundations? The usual 
 intelligence of this fact, leaving out of view the aid of the 
 diviner's wand, which with magnetic certainty vibrates to the 
 emanations evolved from its sympathetic metal, is obtained by 
 dreams — three unvarying dreams, and the mind is set at rest 
 as to every circumstance connected with the accomplishment of 
 its desires ! 
 
 Out of the tales that tradition has preserved of endeavours 
 after stone-concealed riches, two may be selected, in neither of 
 which the lords of the manor were entitled to lay claim to 
 treasure trove. 
 
 In a field near Meldon, a favourite site in the records of local 
 treasure quests, was placed a large stone, under which a person 
 named James Gillies dreamt successively there was hid a box 
 of a three- sided figure filled with gold. James was unfor- 
 tunately destitute of one of the prime qualities of an adept in 
 money explorations — the capacity of being " sworn to deepest 
 secrecy." Recognising no merit in privacy or concealment, 
 whatever event of novelty occurred to him was invariably 
 uppermost, and what could better attract a wondering auditory 
 than a revelation of his unrivalled vision? Henne it became 
 blazed abroad and reached the ears of more individuals than 
 even he would have been willing to entrust it to, who made no 
 scruple of appropriating to their own private account the infor- 
 mation so obligingly furnished. The instances in which the 
 nocturnal hints were repeated became at length so frequent that 
 James, who was always a great loiterer, resolved to make a 
 
LEGENDS EESPECTING HUGE STONES. 201 
 
 complete story of his materials by exploring the " golden 
 harvest," which assuredly fortune had been devising for him, as 
 the result of such incessant importunities. Arrived at the spot, 
 he found indeed the stone, as the dream had represented, but it 
 had been violently wrenched from its position, and upon ex- 
 amining its former resting-place he beheld in the midst a 
 triangular pit that bore, moulded upon its sides, the impression 
 of some more solid nucleus having once existed there of suffi- 
 ciently ample size to satisfy the wishes of the most eager aspirant 
 after a competency of the world's riches ; but the " pose " was 
 gone, the coffer had vanished, while to the garrulous dreamer 
 there remained nothing but the mortification of having the prize 
 snatched from him because he could not hold his peace. 
 
 " But not a word of it, 'tis fairies' treasure ; 
 Which, but reveal'd, brings on the blabber's ruine." 
 
 Massinger's Fatall Dowry. 
 
 A money coffer of a triangular shape is not a Northumbrian 
 peculiarity, for Hogg, in his Winter Evening Tales, has related 
 a tradition of a " three neukit stane like a cockit hat," under 
 which was hid a purse or pose — the scene being Kelso Bridge 
 (London Bridge according to other authorities) . 
 
 In the fields between Lilburn and Middleton rests a stone 
 which, in the suggestions of the " Beligio loci," is not to be 
 removed while the present system of things maintains its 
 stability. Two hinds, with more than the intrepidity of their 
 class, resolved to explore the mystery that it shrouded and 
 enrich themselves by one energetic stroke. Accordingly, when 
 the shades of night had fallen and nature had sunk to repose, 
 having provided themselves with mattocks and spades, thev, 
 without informing any one, and without waiting for the cus- 
 tomary warnings, repaired to the scene of enterprise and com- 
 mciieed their daring operations. They had already penetrated 
 
202 THE DENHAM TKACTS. 
 
 to a considerable depth without any manifestations of danger, 
 each fresh spadeful of earth communicating invigorated energy 
 to their arms, and reinspiring them with hope ; and they had 
 begun to flatter themselves that the oft-repeated tale of 
 demoniac watchers over the treasures that slumbered beneath 
 was but a vain chimera which ignorance had conjured up, 
 when all at once one of them heard a low fluttering, as of some- 
 thing struggling to get free, come from beneath the stone. He 
 communicated his impressions to his coadjutor, but as the sound 
 had not reached him, he received but a rude banter to reassure 
 him. He again resumed the work, when suddenly a repeated 
 movement from below shot a pang of terror to the heart of both. 
 One of them still persisted in disturbing the precincts of the 
 fated stone ; but scarcely had he removed the unhallowed soil 
 when the stone commenced moving up and down violently, and 
 out there issued from under it— and the earth quaked to let it 
 forth — a creature all in white, in figure like a swan, that 
 " flaffered and flew," and made such strange and hideous 
 outcry that the delinquents, casting down their implements, 
 hurried off, each in the direction his terrors prompted him would 
 farthest carry him from the grasp of the evil thing which his 
 unhallowed doings had evoked from the recesses of the earth, 
 and whose rage no human power might avail to appease. The 
 sanctuary of the stone was ever afterwards inviolate. Fixed in 
 its pristine position it still draws the dread and reverence of all 
 the swains in its vicinity who have not yet learned to under- 
 value the opinions and belief of their simple progenitors. 
 
 The immovable stone has its representative elsewhere. On 
 a hillside at Chertsey, in Surrey, " lies a huge stone of gravel 
 and sand which they call the devil's stone, and believe it cannot 
 be moved, and that a treasure is hid underneath." * 
 
 * Aubrey's Natural History and Antiquities of Surrey. 
 
LEGENDS RESPECTING HUGE STONES. 203 
 
 In a letter from the famous astrologer, Dr. John Dee, 
 to Lord Burghley, dated 3rd October, 1574, he says that 
 " of late, I have byn sued unto by diverse sorts of people, 
 of which some by vehement iterated dreams, some by vision 
 (as they have thought), other by speche forced to their 
 imagination by night, have byn informed of certayn places 
 where Threasor doth lye hid : which all, for feare of Kepars 
 (as the phrase commonly nameth them), or for mistrust of truth 
 in the places assigned, and some for other causes, have forborn 
 to deal farder, unleast I should corage them or cownseile them 
 how to procede." * In Ireland " the popular opinions with 
 respect to hidden treasures are that they are generally under 
 the guardianship of spirits who assume various hideous shapes 
 to affright mortals who seek to discover them. Several of the 
 great lake serpents and water-cows of the Irish Fairy Mythology 
 are supposed to guard treasures ; in some instances black cats 
 are similarly employed." t Near Gunnarton, in North 
 Tynedale, is a remarkable British earthwork, called the " Money 
 Hill," from the local tradition of a dragon-guarded hoard of 
 treasure.^ 
 
 It is the general opinion, worthy of notice as respects the 
 acknowledged supremacy of industry in contributing to success 
 in the pursuits of life, that few of those who have endeavoured 
 to enrich themselves by waiting upon such accidents of fortune, 
 in preference to engaging in a lawful calling, have received 
 special benefit from the riches thence derived. Illusory as 
 fairy treasures they have gone away from their possessors with- 
 
 * Sir H. Ellis's Letters of Eminent Literary Men, p. 36. 
 
 \ Wilde's Irish Popular Sujierstitions, p. 98. 
 
 J Rev. G. It. Hall in Arch. JEliana, N. S., Tiii. p. 66 ; also vol. 
 vii. p. 12. It was opened in 1865, and afforded only a negative 
 result. 
 
204 THE DENHAM TEACTS. 
 
 out their enjoying any perceptible advantage from them. No 
 one has ever come to good who searched for gold, say the 
 Italians. As a maxim applicable to the bulk of mankind, it is 
 undeniable that opulence easily and unexpectedly procured 
 leaves its thoughtless obtainer in even a worse state of wretched- 
 ness than his original poverty. 
 
 " For as lie got it freely, so 
 He spends it frank and freely too.'" 
 
 There are, however, individuals, exceptions from the crowd, 
 in whom prosperity, instead of exciting them to a prodigal 
 profusion, or conduct incompatible with their previous steady 
 attention to the duties of their station, only generates increased 
 exertions, in order to be found worthy of the eminence to 
 which they have unexpectedly attained. By this moderate 
 procedure, any unforeseen efflux of wealth becomes so moulded 
 and incorporated with the products of their prudently acquired 
 gains, that it participates in the blessing which will sooner or 
 later reward the efforts of patient and well-bestowed diligence. 
 As an illustration of these remarks a popular story may be 
 cited, of which the occurrences happened about eighty years 
 ago, and have, according to the relator's account, the testimony 
 of living and faithful witnesses. 
 
 A farm-steading situated near the borders of Northum- 
 berland, a few miles from Haltwhistle, was occupied at 
 the period to which we refer by a family of the name of 
 
 W k n. In front of the dwelling house, and at about 
 
 sixty yards' distance, lay a stone of vast size, as ancient, for so 
 tradition amplifies the date, as the Flood. On this stone, at 
 the dead hour of the night, might be discerned a female 
 figure, wrapped in a groy cloak, with one of those low- 
 crowned black bonnets so familiar to our grandmothers 
 upon her head, incessantly knock ! knock ! knocking in a 
 
LEGENDS RESPECTING HUGE STONES. 205 
 
 fruitless endeavour to split the impenetrable rock. Duly as 
 night came round she occupied her lonely station in the same 
 low, crouching attitude, and pursued the dreary obligations of 
 her destiny till the grey streaks of the dawn gave admonition to 
 depart. From this, the only perceptible action in which she 
 engaged, she gained the name of " Nelly the Knocker." So 
 perfectly had the inmates of the farmhouse, in the lapse of time 
 which will reconcile sights and events the most disagreeable and 
 alarming, become accustomed to Nelly's undeviating nightly 
 din, that the business of life went forward unimpeded by any 
 apprehension accruing from her presence. Did the servant- 
 man make his punctual resort to the neighbouring cottages, 
 he took the liberty of scrutinising Nelly's antiquated garb, 
 that varied not with the vicissitudes of seasons, or pried sym- 
 pathisingly into the progress of her monotonous occupation ; 
 and though her pale, ghostly, contracted features gave a 
 momentary pang of terror that unhinged the courage of the 
 boldest, it was rapidly effaced in the vortex of good fellowship 
 into which he was speedily drawn. Did the lover venture an 
 appointment with his mistress at the rustic stile of the stack- 
 garth, Nelly's unwearied hammer, instead of proving a barrier, 
 only served by imparting a grateful sense of mutual danger to 
 render more intense the raptures of the hour of meeting. So 
 apathetio were the feelings cherished towards her, and so little 
 jealousy existed of her power to injure, that the relator of these 
 circumstances states that on several occasions she has passed 
 Nelly at her laborious toil without evincing the least flutter of 
 the nerves, beyond a hurried step, as she stole a glance at the 
 inexplicable form. An event, in the course of years, disclosed 
 the secrets which that marvellous stone enshrined, and drove 
 poor Nelly for ever from the scene so inscrutably linked with 
 her fate. Two of the sons of the farmer were rapidly approach- 
 ing maturity, when one of them, more reflecting and shrewd, 
 
206 THE DENHAM TEACTS. 
 
 suggested the idea of relieving Nelly from her avocation, and 
 of taking possession of the legacy to which she was evidently 
 and urgently summoning. He proposed, conjointly with his 
 father and brother, to blast the stone, as the most expeditious 
 mode of obtaining access to her arcana ; and this in the open 
 daylight, in order that any tutelary protection she might be 
 disposed to extend to her favourite haunt might, as she was 
 a thing of darkness and the night, be effectually countervailed. 
 Nor were they disappointed, for upon clearing away the earth 
 and fragments that resulted from the explosion, there was 
 revealed a cluster of urns, closely packed together, containing 
 gold. Anxious that nothing should transpire, they had taken 
 the precaution in the meanwhile to despatch the female servant 
 a needless errand, and ere her return the whole was efficiently 
 and without suspicion secured. And so completely did they 
 succeed in keeping their own counsel, and so successfully did 
 their reputation keep pace with the cautious production of their 
 undivulged treasures, that for many years afterwards they were 
 never suspected of gaining any advantage from Nelly's " knock- 
 ing " ; their improved appearance and the somewhat imposing 
 figure they made in their little district being solely attributed to 
 their superior judgment and to the good management of their 
 lucky farm. As Lilly the adept says, " Secrecy and intelligent 
 operators, with a strong confidence and knowledge of what they 
 are doing, are best for this work." * 
 
 The " Knocker " is a Welsh spirit, little statured, about half 
 a yard long, who indicates to the workmen in the mines the rich 
 veins of silver and gold. The buccas or knockers are also be- 
 
 * Lives of Lilly and Ashmole, p. 48. Mr. J. P. Campbell, 
 author of the West Highland Tales, on reading this in 1862, remarks: 
 " The same story is now current of a farmer near Skipness. It is but 
 a popular tale, I suspect." 
 
LEGENDS EESPECTING HDGE STONES. 207 
 
 lieved to inhabit the rocks, caves, adits, and wells of Cornwall.* 
 Such also is the German Wichtlein, the " swart fairy of the 
 mine." f Thus widely scattered are the relics of pagan 
 beliefs, from the common home, whence they diverged in the 
 far back ages. 
 
 Far up in the bleak moorland hollow that divides the tail- 
 ridges of Hedgehope and " the wild Dunmore," half concealed 
 by rank heath and the gray mountain mosses, half sunk in the 
 yielding peaty soil, hard by a fretful rivulet, bordered by its 
 narrow stripe of emerald grass and rushes, stands the decayed 
 Druid Circle of Three-stone Burn. It consists of a single circle 
 of rude, unequal, porphyritic stones, placed in an oval, whose 
 diameter from west to east is 38, and from north to south 33 
 yards. The stones are about eight or nine yards distant, but 
 there are many gaps occasioned by the stones having been over- 
 turned, or having disappeared in the ground, during the lapse 
 of ages. Whether they once enclosed an area dedicated to 
 religious observances, or formed the thingstead for determining 
 the controversies among the rude tribes, the foundations of 
 whose circular abodes, whose still open peat diggings, and 
 whose plots of corn ground, laid out in antique fashion, still 
 occupy, undisturbed, many a slope and depression of that 
 hilly region, is immaterial to our present theme. J It 
 
 * Hunt's Popular Romances of the West of England, p. 88. 
 
 t Grose. Brand's Pop. Ant., ii. pp. 276, 283. 
 
 | A British townlet, with several camps, attendant tumuli, and 
 hollow ways, as well as patches of ancient tillage ground, is situated 
 by the side of the footpath leading from Middleton to Uderton-Dodd 
 shepherd's house ; and similar remains are frequent elsewhere on the 
 hills around, denoting a former dense population. There are also 
 cyclopean walls on the margin of the burn, near the ruinous circle. 
 Old peat mosses exist far up on the back of Cunnion, opposite to 
 Three-stone Burn, excavated not in modern times, but ascribed to the 
 
208 THE DENHAM TEACTS. 
 
 consisted once, tradition rumoured, of 12 stones, but only 
 11 of them were visible, and it was foretold that when- 
 ever the 1 2th was found, a fortune in money would reward the 
 lucky discoverer. The present worthy tenant, at the head of a 
 company of hay-makers, whose work in the adjacent haining 
 had been interrupted by a shower, instituted a search after the 
 missing pillar, and lo ! instead of twelve there were thirteen 
 stones. Thirteen is always an unlucky number, so his pains- 
 taking was unremunerated. Perhaps he was not aware that 
 Druid money is only bestowed by reversion in the world to 
 come.* This fact, however, came to light, that all the 
 prostrate stones had fallen from the west, but the cause of this 
 
 dwellers thereabouts in the days of old. Ground broken by like 
 ancient peateries has also been observed on the heights behind 
 Yeavering Bell. Other relics are a horn, not differing from that of 
 the present domestic cattle found while cutting turf for fuel to the 
 south of Three-stone Burn House, and " a sharping stone," lying 
 18 inches deep, near a place called the Prashy Syke. The stone may 
 have sunk to that depth, but the place was dry and covered with 
 heath when it was found imbedded in peat. It is of the usual 
 form, squarish, seven inches long by one inch broad. It had been 
 " badly sharpened " with, and was rounded, and not flat as now on 
 the sides. It was reckoned to be " burn-stone," is of a grey colour, 
 not unlike some of the greywacke series. Stone celts of greywacke 
 have been turned up near Hetton Hall, so it is not unlikely that this 
 rock likewise may have supplied the "primitive inhabitant" with 
 whetstones. A short stone cist, with bones in it, was disinterred at 
 Carr's Fold, in the direction of Langlee, while rebuilding it some 
 years since. 
 
 * " Like money by the Druids borrow'd 
 In the other world to be restor'd." 
 
 Hudibras. 
 Druidre pecuniam mutuo accipiebant in posteriore vita reddituri. 
 Pat.ricius, torn. ii. p. 9. 
 
LEGENDS RESPECTING HUGE STONES. 209 
 
 disposition was not ascertained. Some time after the vanished 
 gold promised to reproduce itself in another form. The burn, 
 during its winter impetuosity, rushing against the decomposed 
 granite of its bed, detaches the tarnished specks of mica, which 
 as they are twirled among its eddies, emit a flashing metallic 
 lustre. This was enough to tempt an exploration among the 
 sand and debris, but the illusion of having met with a gold 
 mine among the Cheviot Hills soon passed away, for the scales 
 that were picked up were merely " cat's-gold" — "as far from 
 true gold as a painted fire is from a real." 
 
 " Like tho Leganian mine, 
 Whore sparkles of golden splendour 
 
 All over the surface shine. 
 But if in pursuit we go deeper, 
 
 Allur'd by the gleam that shone, 
 
 Ah ! false as the dream of the sleeper, 
 
 Tho bright ore is gone." 
 
 Moore. 
 
 But expectations of subterranean wealth as concomitants 
 of tho 
 
 " Stones of power 
 By Druids raised in magic hour," 
 
 can bo justified by various precedents. In 1824, a gold sceptre 
 or red of office, which may have been borne by some ancient 
 arch-priest or king in the great assemblies of his people, was 
 dug up in tho circle of Leys, Inverness-shire ; and in 1838, a 
 gold ring and an armilla of beaten gold were found in the 
 island of Islay, under a large standing stone. Sometimes it is 
 the key lias gono a-missing. Thus " the Hazclrigg Dunnie " 
 loses the key of Dowdon-doors, and is " ruined for overman"."' 
 VOL. II. i' 
 
210 'I HE DENHAM TRACTS. 
 
 Of Cairn-a-vain, a gigantic pile of stones on one of the Ochill 
 hills in Kinross-shire, it has been prophesied : 
 
 " In the Dryburn well, beneath a stane, 
 You'll find the key o' Cairn-a-vain, 
 That will inak' a' Scotland rich ane by ane." * 
 
 Equally fortunate shall it be with the west of Ireland ; where 
 the visions that dazzle the fancy of the half-starved inhabitants 
 compensate for and are created by contrast with the gloomy 
 features of the surrounding scenes ; for there lies the Celtic 
 elysium, and the accumulated treasures of centuries. " The 
 inhabitants of Arran More, the largest of the south isles of 
 Arran, on the coast of Gahvay, are persuaded that in a clear 
 day they can see Hy Brasail, the enchanted (or Royal) Island, 
 from the coast, the paradise of the pagan Irish." f On the 
 north-west of the island they call this enchanted country Tir 
 Hudi, or the city of Hud, % believing that the city stands 
 there which once possessed all the riches of the world, and that 
 its key lies buried under some Druidical monument. When Mr. 
 Burton, in 1765, went in search of the Ogham monument, 
 called Conane's Tomb, on Callan Mountain (also called Callaw 
 
 * Wilson's Archwologij and Prehistoric Annals of Scotland, pp. 
 114, 316, 141. Mr. J. F. Campbell, in some remarks on this paper, 
 with which he favoured me, says, " Cairn-a-vain may signify cairn of 
 the ore or mine, spelt in the genitive mhein, pronounced Vein or Vain 
 with a nasal sound. This looks more like a fact. The vein of some 
 mine may be visible at the bottom of an old shaft under a stone." 
 (2Uth January, 180-2.) 
 
 f See West Ilif/Jihiinl Tales, vol. iv. 
 
 X Mr. Campbell notes that this is some corruption ; Tir na h 
 night; the land of youth, is a common name for this "Western 
 paradise. 
 
LEGENDS INSPECTING HUGE STONES. 21 1 
 
 Mountain), the people could not be convinced that the search 
 was made after an inscription, but insisted that he was seeking 
 after an enchanted key that lay buried with the hero, and 
 which, when found, would restore the enchanted city to its 
 former splendour, and convert the moory heights of Callan 
 Mountains into rich and fruitful plains. They expect great 
 riches whenever this city is discovered." * 
 
 * Vallancey's Collectanea de Rebus Hiberrdcis. Beauford's Ancient 
 Topography of Ireland. 
 
XIX. 
 
 MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 The Plague or Silver Stone. 
 
 " Plague or Silver Stones were placed in the vicinity of a 
 town or by the wayside and were used thus. When the plague 
 existed in a town, one of the parties in money transactions, 
 deposited the silver or money in water, in a cavity on the top of 
 the stone, and retired to a distance, while the receiver advanced 
 and took it out, thus preventing contagion. 
 
 " The remains of this stone at Hexham was standing in the 
 recollection of an aged lady (my informant), who stated that 
 being taken by her father to walk, when a child, on coming 
 near the Silver Stone she was told to spit upon it, and she 
 would find silver near. Her father contrived to drop a piece of 
 silver, unknown to her, which she readily found, to her surprise 
 and delight. She confessed to have returned some days after, 
 unknown to her father, to the stone, but the spit did not pro- 
 duce the same effect." — A Guide to the Abbey Church of Hex- 
 ham, by Joseph Fairless, p. 17. Hexham, 1853. 
 
 Finding of a Horse-shoe. 
 
 Near Woolcr, when a horse-shoe is found, the holes clear of 
 nails are to be counted, as these indicate how long it is before 
 tho party who picked it up is going to bo married. Elsewhere 
 
MISCELLANEOUS. 213 
 
 tho number of nails remaining indicate luck. Some simple 
 people, it is said, nailed a horse-shoe to the door of a house, 
 that they might always have moonlight, taking the horse-shoe to 
 be the fallen moon. 
 
 Bees. 
 
 A hive-bee lighting on the hand is fortunate and portends 
 the reception of money. 
 
 It is still customary to warn the bees of the death of their 
 master, otherwise they will bring luck no longer. One had 
 seen a piece of the funeral cake placed at the mouth of the hive, 
 which the inmates dragged w r ithin with a mournful noise. 
 
 Petting Stone. Roping. 
 
 Eglingham Church was one of those in former times where 
 there was a tl petting stone " for the bride to jump over. At 
 other churches a stool was placed, with a man in attendance at 
 each side, over which they " jumped " the bride and bridegroom 
 by taking hold of their hands and partly lifting them. After the 
 couple were married, and on their way home, they were way- 
 laid, and a rope placed across the street or the road, which it 
 was necessary to leap over, and in order that it might be suffi- 
 ciently lowered to enable this ceremony to be performed, the 
 holders of the rope claimed a money perquisite. In country 
 places the roping would take place for three times at the least. 
 
 my Mally, inconstant Mallek. 
 
 A Northumbrian Song. 
 
 " I bought to my Mally, the ribbons of red, 
 The ribbons I bought her was a crown every yard ; 
 All that I bought her, it still winna' do, 
 For she to another proved constant and true. 
 
 my Mally, inconstant Mallee ! 
 
214 THE DENHAJI TRACTS. 
 
 " I bought to my Mally, the riDbons of silk, 
 The ribbons I bought her was whiter than milk, 
 All that I bought her, it still winna do, 
 For she to another proved constant and true, 
 
 my Mally, inconstant Mallee ! " 
 
 This was sung to a simple and rather plaintive air, and was 
 known in the country district near Hexham. The air I know, 
 but it has possibly never been taken down. 
 
 Old Toast in North Northumberland. 
 
 Mr. W. told me that when a boy he had often heard about 
 Wooler, among country folks, the following toast, but the 
 memory of it had now died out : 
 
 " Health, "Wealth, Milk, and Meal, 
 
 May the Deil, 
 
 Rock him weel, 
 
 In a creel, 
 Who doesn't wish us a' weel." 
 
 Guisarding Rhymes. 
 
 Fragment of a Guisarding Rhyme in South Northumberland. 
 
 " silence, gentlemen, if you would silent be, 
 Alexander is my name, and I'll sing right cheerfully; 
 We are six actors young, who never acted before, 
 And we will do our best, and the best can do no more. 
 Oh the first that I call in, he is a squire's son, 
 He's like to lose his true love, because he is too young ; 
 The next that I call in, he is a tailor fine, 
 What think you of his work, when he made this coat cf mine. ! 
 
 A coat of many colours ncd adornments. 
 
MISCELLANEOUS. 215 
 
 Billy come thee way, with thy valiant spear, 
 
 For thou canst act thy part, as well as any here. 
 
 # * # * 
 
 As we are marching round, think of us what you will, 
 Fiddler strike up and play, the " Auld Wife of Covershill." 
 
 At Wooler, in North Northumberland, children begin guisard- 
 ing on Halloween night, and continue in going about in separate 
 bands, which call at most of the houses of the town, reciting 
 rhymes, of which I have obtained an example. One enters and 
 recites : 
 
 " Redd stocks (or sticks), redd stools, 
 Hero comes in a pack of fools ; 
 A pack of i'ools behind the door, 
 That was never here before." 
 
 Eggs versus Cheese. 
 
 A man at one time laid a wager that he would cat ever so 
 many eggs, " teens " at least, i.e. from thirteen to twenty; 
 every morning in the year ; but this diet proved too much for 
 him, and he died before the year was out. He was opened, and 
 a hard substance of the shape of a knife was extracted from his 
 stomach. His brother obtained possession of this, and having 
 got a blado put into it, used it as a knife. Some time after, 
 while labouring in the field, he had bread and cheese to dinner, 
 and ho laid the handle of his knife on tho cheese and found that 
 it was quite dissolved away. He then made a wager that he 
 would eat twice as many eggs as his brother bargained to do, 
 and on the same conditions. The offer was taken, and he went 
 on with tho daily meal of eggs, always eating a piece of cheese 
 after them, and no evil effects resulting, he won the wager. 
 The moral taught was, " Cheese digests everything but itself." 
 
216 THE DENHAM TEACTS. 
 
 The Druid's Lapfu' and the Devil's Stone. 
 
 The standing stone at Yevering in G-lendale is a large column 
 of porphyry planted upright in a field at the northern base of the 
 hill called Yevering Bell. It is usually spoken of as indicating 
 a battle, but is in reality prehistoric, there being another, now 
 prostrate, among the old forts and tumuli on the eastern end of 
 the lower slope of tliat hill.* By the common people it is called 
 the " Druid's Lapfu'." A female Druid's apron string broke 
 there, and the stone dropped out and remained in its present 
 position. Another account is that one of the Druids, who are 
 represented like the Pechs or Picts to have had very long arms, 
 pitched it from the top of the Bell, and it sunk into the soil 
 where it fell. 
 
 The " Apron full of stones " was a large heap of stones near 
 Hedgley, removed in 1768 or 1769, supposed by the country 
 people to be the work of the devil. They were found to cover 
 the base and fragments of a cross, which is called in Armstrong's 
 map " Fair Cross. "f 
 
 The Bev. Gr. Eome Hall, P.S.A., in the Archceologia ^Eliana, 
 N. S., vol. viii. p. 68 (1879), notices a monolith, twelve feet 
 high, similar to the one still standing at Yevering, by the name 
 of the Devil's Stone or Eock. It stands in the neighbourhood 
 of two ancient British camps, not far from Birtley Holywell, in 
 North Tynedale. " Tradition asserts this to have been tlie 
 scene of a Satanic leap, the ' very hoof marks ' being yet visible 
 on its altar-like summit in the shape of what geologists would 
 call ' pot holes,' a leap intended to result in the demon's descent 
 
 * Both stones were standing in Horsley's time (1729-30). 
 Horsley's Northumberland, p. 12, and are noticed elsewhere, 
 f Mackenzie's Hist, of Northumberland. 
 
MISCELLANEOUS. 217 
 
 at Lee Hall, on the opposite bank of the river, about half a mile 
 distant; but the interval not being carefully estimated, the con- 
 sequence was a fall into the deepest abyss of the North Tyne, 
 just below the Countess Park Chuts, thence called the ' Leap- 
 Orag Pool,' where the Satanic personage is said to have been 
 drowned ! " * 
 
 In a close near Barrasford, on the North Tyne, a cluster 
 of standing stones stood within memory, which have been 
 removed by agricultural operations. The last of them, of 
 basalt, blasted a few years since by gunpowder, yet lies in an 
 inclined position. Beneath the stone fragments of bones and 
 charcoal were found in digging, which would indicate an ancient 
 interment. " It is popularly believed that the series of stones 
 which once stood here were located on the spot, through a duel 
 between two ancient giants, who from their respective stations 
 on the heights east and west of the river hurled these Titanic 
 missiles at each other, which clashed and fell midway, a legend 
 closely resembling that of Brittany, which terms such great 
 stones the quoits or palets de Gargantuan f 
 
 Cavern Stories and Pipers' Coves. 
 
 The Hurlstono, a sandstone monolith, which stands in a 
 cultivated field on Chillingham Newton Farm, and is supposed 
 to have been an old boundary stone, has already been referred 
 to, as well as the legend attached to it. The Lite Mr. Tate, of 
 Alnwick, has written a version of it, but others that have 
 appeared more recently in the Newcastle Weekly Chronicle 
 nowspapcr are possibly more exact representations of the 
 
 • It is also described by Mr. Hall, in Arch. ^Elian., N. S., vii. 
 pp. 10, 11. 
 
 t Rev. G. It. Hall, Arch. JElian., N. S., vii. p. 11. 
 
218 THE DENHAM TRACTS. 
 
 popular belief. A. Scorer writes, " There is a cavern on 
 Bewick Moor called the ' Cater an' s Hole,' which has not been 
 fully explored, although tradition mentions an adventurer pro- 
 ceeding so far that he heard supernatural visitants dancing 
 round the Hurlstone." John Slobbs, London, says, " I suppose 
 this will be a version of a story I heard in the far north many 
 years ago. It was of a cavern, somewhere, and nobody knew 
 where it went to, or where it ended. An adventurous wight 
 made up his mind to solve the difficulty and win renown in his 
 own rustic circle. He therefore took seven years' meat and seven 
 years' candles, or seven days' meat and seven days' candles — I 
 cannot say which exactly, but either will do — and started on 
 his journey. And as happens in all such cases, he travelled 
 and travelled and travelled. And he travelled until he had 
 only one-half of his meat and one half of his candles left. Then 
 he began to consider that if he travelled much further, and did 
 not reach the end of his journey, or an opening to get out of 
 some way, he would neither have meat nor candles to serve him 
 on his road back, and consequently must die there and never 
 more be heard of. And it so happened that whilst he was 
 studying what to do, and quite at a loss to know whether to 
 return or proceed, he heard a voice saying — • 
 
 ' Jee woali agyen 
 Turn back tlie stannin' styen.' 
 
 And he took it as a warning, and returned to his home and 
 kindred." This writer's impression was that the cavern he had 
 heard of was on Grcenside Hill, near Glanton. J. Swinhoe, 
 writing on the same subject, relates : "It was always believed 
 that there was a subterraneous passage clear all the way from 
 Cateran's Hole, on Bewiok Moor, to Hell's Hole (more fre- 
 quently oalled Hen's Hole),' a wild ravine at the foot of Cheviot 
 Hill, and that in the olden, troublous times of Border warfare 
 
MISCELLANEOUS. 219 
 
 it was frequently used both for purposes of offence and defence, 
 for concealment of person and property, and as the means of 
 transporting rieving bands of hostile borderers from the one 
 locality to the other. An adventurer, our wight, made up his 
 mind to test the truth of its existence, and took provisions and 
 candles — whether for seven years or seven days, I cannot 
 exactly tell either — but he travelled on and on until the con- 
 sumption of half his stock suggested the necessity of returning ; 
 and just when he was wondering where he might be, and 
 what he should do, he plainly heard overhead the voice of a 
 ploughman, saying to his horses : 
 
 ' Hup aboot and gee agyeen, 
 Roond aboot the Whii-lstycn.'" 
 
 He states that an acquaintance recently explored the cavern 
 on Bewick Moor, and it ended in something less than forty 
 yards ; in no simple obstruction, but solid rock. 
 
 There was a different tradition about the termini of this sup- 
 posed underground passage in Horsley's timo. He says that 
 " at Hebburn," which is near Chillingham, and by the 
 crags under which lie Hebburn Wood, behind which stretch 
 wastes of peaty moor, connected with the moorlands that 
 stretch to Bewick, " is a hole called Heytherrio Hole, which 
 people imagine to be an entrance into a subterraneous passage, 
 continued as far as Dunsdale on the west (north rather) side of 
 Cheviot Hill, where there is another hole of the same kind 
 called Dunsdale Hole." * 
 
 It is told of " Eelin's Hole," which lies far up among the 
 rocks on the east side of the Henhole llavine, that a piper 
 having once entered it to explore it, his music continued to be 
 
 * Materials for a History of Northumberland, p. 58. 
 
220 THE DENHA.M TRACTS. 
 
 heard for half-way across the interval betwixt it and Oateran's 
 Hole, on Bewick Moor. Like other pipers in a similar predica- 
 ment, his tune terminated in — 
 
 " I doubt, I doubt I'll ne'er win out." 
 
 Such a legend we have attached to Windielaw Cove, near 
 Eedheugh, on the coast of Berwickshire ; and also to some of 
 the caverns near Montrose. Pudding Gyve, in the vicinity of 
 Thurso, is a hollow cove, worn into the solid rock by the cease- 
 less grinding of the sea. " There is an old tradition of a piper 
 who ventured ' too far ben,' and ultimately lost himself. Many 
 people, good people, heard him long, long after, playing his 
 pipes in a low, hollow sound, some four miles up the country " 
 (Robert Dick, in Smiles' Life of that worthy, p. 116). The 
 " Piper's Coe o' Cowend," in the parish of Colvend, in Gallo- 
 way, has also its musicians, but there is a different set of ideas 
 connected with it. (See Mactaggart's Gallovidian Encyclopedia, 
 p. 382.) There is a Piper's Hole on the banks of Peninnis, in 
 St. Mary's, Scilly, which communicates, as tradition saith, with 
 the island of Tresco, where another orifice known by the same 
 name is seen. Strange stories are related of this passage, of 
 men going so far in that they never returned — of dogs going 
 quite through and coming out at Tresco with most of their hair 
 off, and such like incredibles (Heath's Scilly Isles). Several 
 who have attempted to penetrate the Fugoe Hole at the Land's 
 End have escaped only by great luck — " by the skin of their 
 teeth," as the saying is. (Hunt's Popular Romances of the 
 West of England, p. 185.) 
 
 Remedies for HYDRornoniA. 
 
 To cure the bite of a mad dog in South Tynedale, it was 
 usual to send to " Lockerly," on the borders of Scotland, for the 
 
MISCELLANEOUS. 221 
 
 water of some well into which something flying over it had 
 dropt a stone which had communicated curative virtue to the 
 spring. One day, at the place where my informant dwelt, a 
 suspicious-looking dog, which was going " allyin " * about in a 
 field, was induced to come to the stable and was tied up ; but 
 the mad fit took it, and it broke loose and bit a weaver's dog 
 and many cattle. A man was forthwith dispatched for Lockerly 
 water ; and when it was brought every animal on the place had 
 to taste a little, and the result was that no evil effects ensued 
 from the bites. 
 
 Another person had heard of great numbers of cattle, in the 
 county of Durham, being affected with hydrophobia, and a mes- 
 senger was sent to the borders of Cumberland for a stone, which 
 being placed among water to be given them to drink would 
 havo the effect of curing them ; but unfortunately the remedy 
 in this particular case failed. The Gateshead Observer news- 
 paper, of date March 23rd, 1844, under tho heading of " Mad 
 Dogs," stated that during the preceding three months the 
 neighbourhood of Kirkwhelpington and Birtley, in Northum- 
 berland, had been much alarmed by visits of dogs in a rabid 
 state, no less than seven having been killed. " We may add 
 that the ' spirit of the age' has not yet banished the popular 
 belief in tho virtues of LockerJee water ; a large supply having 
 been procured by voluntary subscription. The worming of 
 dogs has likewise been extensively performed." The "Lockerby 
 water " (Dumfriesshire) appears to havo been intended, for 
 which see Mr. Henderson's Folklore of the Northern Counties, 
 p. 1G3; the confusion in the name arising from the similar 
 qualities of the far-famed Lockhart of Lee Penny. 
 
 • To movo or run from side to side. In North Northumberland 
 tlic word is sail gin' , signifying sauntering, getting on slowly with 
 Hui'k ; iiImi alli/in, wasting time. 
 
222 THE DUNHAM TRACTS. 
 
 I am enabled, from former personal acquaintance with a rela- 
 tive of the late Mr. Turnbull, to whom the Hume-byres Penny 
 belonged, to give some additional particulars of its history to 
 those contained in Mr. Henderson's work, ubi supra. It was 
 called the Black Penny, possibly in contradistinction to a silver or 
 white penny. It was left to Mr. T. by an aunt as an heirloom. 
 The following was said to be its origin. A cow, or as others say 
 all the cattle, was bitten at a place by a mad dog, and a con- 
 sultation was held whether she should be slaughtered or undergo 
 a course of medicine. Perplexity was removed by a crow in 
 the hour of extremity fetching the penny in its mouth and 
 dabbling it amongst water to show how it was to be rendered 
 efficacious. Mr. T. lent it to a person near Morpeth, and having 
 lost faith in its virtues, never took the trouble of recalling it. 
 Mr. T.'s nephew, who as well as him has now been dead for 
 many years, wrote me thus on the subject, 25th April, 1843 : 
 " The magical penny which Mr. Turnbull had was not quite so 
 large as a common penny, but thicker. It had a kind of raised 
 rim or border, and seemed to be composed of copper and zinc. 
 It had been in the family for a hundred years at least. The 
 family lived at Hadden, near Sprouston, when they got it. It 
 had been several times given out, and once a purse containing 
 gold, but to what amount was not known, was left as a deposit 
 for its safe return. In Northumberland and Yorkshire much 
 credit was given to its powers. Mr. T. has a letter of thanks, 
 but I have not yet prevailed on him to search for it. Upon one 
 occasion a Yorkshireman came to Hume-byres on his master's 
 account for the penny ; and fearing that Mr. T. might not part 
 Math it, ho was provided with barrels to carry the healing water ; 
 but, unfortunately for him, the penny was not at Hume-byrcs, 
 but at Northbank, near Linlithgow ; however, he extended his 
 ride and procured it. T think it was his master who returned a 
 letter of thanks. The last person who got it away, fifteen" years 
 
MISCELLANEOUS. 223 
 
 ago, wrote to Mr. T. saying he had returned it by post ; but that 
 is doubted. His address is as follows : Mr. Thomas Millburn, 
 Parish of Bothal, Bothal, Ogle, North Seaton. The gentleman 
 for whose cattle it was got was John Saddler, Esq., Tritling- 
 ton." [In Mackenzie's Hist, of Northumberland, ii. pp. 149, 
 150, it is said: " Tritlington, Hebron Chapelry, Morpeth, is 
 situated about If miles north-east of Hebron, and one mile east 
 from the great post road. Here is an old hall," &c. " Near to 
 this old hall a neat mansion house was lately erected by Mr. 
 John Sadler, who from a humble beginning has, by his agricul- 
 tural knowledge and exemplary industry, risen to opulence, and 
 acquired a valuable estate here."] " When I was inquiring 
 about it, there was a cattle-dealer at Hume-byres who was about 
 a fortnight since making the same inquiry at Morpeth and 
 Wooler. He found the circumstances of the penny belonging 
 to Mr. Turnbull having been in that neighbourhood fresh in the 
 memory of some of the inhabitants." 
 
 The belief in the "mad-stone" extends to America. In 
 Hardwicke's Science Gossip for September, 1871, vol. vii. 
 p. 213, there is a quotation from a New York paper to this 
 offect: " Five children, three white and two black, were bitten 
 by a mad dog in Pulaski, Tenn., one day last week. Mad- 
 stones were applied promptly to the white children, it is said, 
 with the desired effect, all of them being now well and safe, 
 while the negro children, to whom the mad-stone was not 
 applied, have gone mad. The account says there were several 
 mad-stones in the neighbourhood." In the same work, for 
 January, 1872, vol. viii. p. 20, Dr. Josiah Curtis, Knoxvillo, 
 Tennessee, writes that there is a popular belief in America that 
 certain stones possess the power of averting hydrophobia from 
 persons bitten by rabid dogs, and it is quite widespread. 
 " It mostly prevails among the unlearned and superstitious, but 
 is not (.'unfilled In such. A very respectable lady in Riehinund, 
 
224 THE DENUAM TRACTS. 
 
 Va., has one of these so-called mad-stones, in which she has 
 implicit faith, and I have known a reputable physician in 
 Illinois who fully believed in their efficacy. There are no 
 special localities where these stones are found, nor is there any- 
 thing very peculiar in their appearance." 
 
 Mr. George Henderson, in his Popular Rhymes of Berwick- 
 shire, p. 23, mentions a very recent instance of a healing stone, 
 that might have become famous had the popular belief in such 
 cures not been superseded by the skilled veterinary. " There 
 is," he says, "or was, a locality near Ayton called the Corbie- 
 hough, because of the number of corbies (ravens or carrion- 
 crows) that were wont to breed there in former times. Our 
 great-grandfather lived in Ayton about 1730, and he got into 
 his possession an article of glamourie which he took out of a 
 corbie's nest, in the "Corbie-heugh, which is said to have 
 wrought many miraculous cures both on man and beast. It 
 is only a few years since this talisman, which was a small 
 triangular piece of glass or transparent stone, was in our 
 keeping, but it is now lost." In a letter of date October 1 1 , 
 1861, Mr. Henderson writes": " The corbie's stone was about 
 the size of a pigeon's egg, and of that thickness, but more 
 elongated. It was of a whitish colour — not so white as our 
 common chucky stones (quartz), and almost opaque. It was 
 said to have cured the Laird of Kimmerghame's cattle of some 
 pestilential disease, by being laid in the pond out of which they 
 drank." The corbie may have mistaken the stone for an egg, 
 and carried it off. From its thickness it could not have been 
 an elf-arrow head, which was in Ireland, sometimes " boiled 
 with some reep halfpence in drink for the suffering creature." * 
 
 * Dr. W. R. Wilde, North. Brit. Agriculturist, October 23, 1861, 
 p. 1038. 
 
MISCELLANEOUS. 225 
 
 Stewart Hall, in the parish of Kothesay, Isle of Bute, for- 
 merly the seat of the Stewarts of Kilwhineloch, was once " the 
 repository of certain blessed stones considered invaluable in 
 curing man and beast, under ' the blink o' an ill e'e.' " In 
 like manner " the milk of cows, which witches took away, 
 returned freely as ever, when they got a certain drink in which 
 those stones had been boiled." * More might be said about 
 curing stones. 
 
 * Wilson's Guide to Rothesay and the Isle of Bute, p. 67. 
 
 VOL. II. 
 
XX. 
 
 BORDER SKETCHES AND FOLKLORE. 
 
 On Covin, Coban, or Capon Trees. 
 
 Dr. Jamieson, in his Scottish Dictionary, says, that in Kox- 
 burghshire, the cooin-tree signifies " a large tree in front of an 
 old Scottish mansion-house, where the laird always met his 
 visitors." A corruption of it is supposed to be " coglan-tree." 
 He derives it from the French convent, convention or agree- 
 ment ; which, again, is from the Latin conventum, a covenant, 
 or conventus, an assembly. Covent, Anglo-Norman, is a cove- 
 nant or agreement in " Morte Arthure." The witches of 
 Auldearn met in covines, and the prettiest of them was called 
 the Maiden of the Covine. The covin-tree is thus a variety of 
 the trysting-tree, whose name and functions as the place of 
 summons in the old " Riding " era, as the spot where rural 
 lovers met and plighted troth, or where the exchangers of 
 services and commodities held and still hold their convention, 
 are indelibly impressed upon northern language and literature. 
 Sir Walter Scott, in a note to his Letters on Demonology and 
 Witchcraft, p. 277, holds the same view as Dr. Jamieson. 
 " The tree near the front of an antient castle was called the 
 covine-tree, probably because the lord received his company 
 there." 
 
 " He is lord of the hunting-horn, 
 
 And king of the Covine-tree ; 
 He's well lov'd in the western waters, 
 
 But best of his ain Minnie." 
 
 "When on a visit to Alnwick in summer, 1861, I found it to 
 
BOEDER SKETCHES AND FOLKLORE. 227 
 
 be well understood that a tree, called there a coban or covan 
 tree, once stood before every castle (within a bowshot of 
 Alnwick Castle for instance), and it was there the lord met his 
 guests. And there used to be, and still is, a rhyme having 
 reference to it, sung by young girls, while playing at " keppy 
 ball," against a tree. From the time they can keep up the 
 ball, they also divine their future prospects as to matrimony or 
 spinster life. 
 
 " Keppy ball, keppy ball, Coban-tree, 
 Come down the lang loanin' and tell to me, 
 The form and the features, the speech and degree, 
 Of the man that is my true lover to be. 
 
 " Keppy ball, keppy ball, Coban-tree, 
 Come down the lang loanin' and tell to me, 
 How many years old (name) is to be — 
 
 One a maiden, two a wife, 
 
 Three a maiden, four a wife," &c. 
 
 And so on, the odds for the single, the even numbers for the 
 married state, as long as the ball can be kept rebounding 
 against the tree round which they play. The Scottish covin 
 and the Northumbrian coban trees are thus identical. 
 
 But there is another class of trees, that has puzzled both 
 antiquarians and county historians, that ought, I think, to be 
 coupled with these. These are the capon-trees ; for v, b, and 
 p, are letters mutually interchangeable in European languages. 
 One of these capon-trees, a venerable oak, in a very decayed 
 state, stands by the highway near to Brampton, Cumberland, 
 and fulfilled, it is to be remarked, the office of a tree of meeting. 
 " It obtained its name from the judges being formerly met here 
 by javelin men, well armed and mounted, from Carlisle, who, in 
 addition to the armour on their backs, were further loaded with 
 a goodly number of cold capons ; and here, under the spreading 
 branches of this once stately tree, did the learned judges and 
 their body-guard partake of this food," (Denham's Curnber- 
 
 Q 2 
 
228 THE DENHAM TEACTS. 
 
 land Rhymes and Proverbs, p. 11.) Tradition makes amusing 
 mistakes in the etymology of local names. The only other, 
 and by far the most famous capon-tree that I know of, stands 
 on the property of the Marquis of Lothian, near Jedburgh. 
 Mr. Oliver, of Longraw, in a letter of 3rd April, 1855, states : 
 " It has its name, tradition says, from its having been the roost- 
 ing-place of the capons belonging to the monks of Jedburgh 
 Abbey. From the shape of the tree, I think the word capen 
 is literally coped, topped. It has a short stem, and a wide- 
 spreading umbrageous top or cope." But this is the character- 
 istic of many other trees besides the capon-tree. Another 
 Roxburghshire friend suggests the "kepping,"or trysting-tree ; 
 but this is not likely, when there is a term in the language 
 appropriate to trysting-trees with a special function such as 
 this may have once possessed. Two other derivations have 
 been proposed by Mr. Jeffrey. In vol. i. p. 48 of his History 
 and Antiquities of Roxburghshire he thus mentions it : " The 
 banks of the river Jed, as it winds round Prior's haugh, are 
 dotted with fine old wood, and at the foot of the haugh, on the 
 south margin, stands a large oak, called the capon-tree. It is 
 thought that the tree derives its name from the Capuchin friars, 
 who delighted to wander amid such lovely scenes, and linger 
 beneath the shade of the wide-spreading oaks. The haugh on 
 which the tree stands belonged to the monastery, and was 
 named after the prior. The tree measures twenty-one feet 
 above the roots ; about ten feet up it divides itself into two 
 branches, which measure respectively eleven feet and a half, 
 and fourteen feet. It is between seventy and eighty feet high, 
 and covers fully an area of ninety-two feet." J. Grigor, in 
 Morton's Cyclopwdia of Agriculture, vol. ii. p. 477, says : 
 " The circumference of its trunk two feet from the ground is 
 twenty-six feet. The height of the tree is fifty-six feet, and the 
 space occupied by the spread of its boughs is nearly a hundred 
 feet in diameter." Mr. Jeffrey, in his second volume, p. 260, 
 
BOEDER SKETCHES AND FOLKLORE. 229 
 
 corrects himself as to the origin of the name. " I am now 
 satisfied that the tree derives its name from its remarkable 
 resemblance to the hood worn by monks of Jedburgh, and 
 which was called a capon." Calling pictorial representation to 
 his aid, his artist figures the capon-tree, with two monks in 
 hoods, wielding sheep-crooks, conferring under the tree, if the 
 accompaniments are not allegorical, about the points of fat 
 beeves, and the prices of wool and mutton — an occupation 
 more correspondent to their historical character than any- 
 romantic predilection, like the Lady Grace of Sir John Van- 
 brugh, for a cool retreat from the noon-day's sultry heat under 
 a great tree. In what language capon signifies a friar's cowl, 
 Mr. J. does not inform his readers. Capuchon, capuce, or 
 capuche (Latin caputium) are the customary terms ; but 
 neither they nor their derivative, Capuchin, resemble capon. 
 Relying then on analogy, we continue in the opinion, that the 
 capon-tree was the covin-tree of the Prior of Jedburgh, who, 
 like other heads of religious houses, had the rank and attributes 
 of nobility. 
 
 A poetical address to the capon-tree, which was contributed 
 to Hogg's Instructor (2nd Series), ii. p. 8, by William Oliver, 
 Esq., of Longraw, embodies the striking vicissitudes of which 
 during the troublous ages of past history this aged tree may 
 have stood a silent witness : — 
 
 " To the Capon-tree. 
 
 " Old Capon-tree, old Capon-tree, 
 
 Thou standest telling of the past, 
 Of Jedworth's forest wild and free 
 
 Thou art alone, forsaken, last. 
 Thou witness of dark ages gone, 
 
 Ere time doth lay his scythe to thee, 
 I fain would know what thou hast known, 
 
 Thou sere and time-worn Capou-tree. 
 
230 THE DENHAM TRACTS. 
 
 "Jed ' wander'd at its own sweet will,' 
 
 When thy green spring-time first began ; 
 The wolf's lone howl the glades would fill, 
 
 As through their moonlit depths he ran. 
 The antler'd deer with ears alert, 
 
 Would listen to his deadly foe, 
 Then hound away, with panting heart, 
 
 O'er ridge of oak, through brake of sloe. 
 
 : Say, did'st thou flourish when those bands, 
 
 The Eternal City's legion'd ones, 
 Did strike their prows 'gainst Albyn's sands, 
 
 To combat with her savage sons ? 
 And did the breeze, as passing by, 
 
 It whisper'd through the spreading boughs, 
 Bear on the Eoman battle-cry, 
 
 And answering shriek of painted foes ? 
 
 : And did the startled deer upspring 
 
 From thy wide top's far-spreading shade ? 
 And did the wild bull's bellow ring 
 
 Through forest, scaur, and tangled glade, 
 As that unwonted battle-cry 
 
 The breeze through Jedworth's forest bore ? 
 Now forest, Roman, all gone by ; 
 
 Eome's tongue — a memory — no more I 
 
 The hoary Druid bless'd thy shade, 
 
 And held thee sacred, mystic tree ; 
 What were the gods to whom he pray'd ? 
 
 What sort of faith had he in thee ? 
 Hast thou e'er seen the sacred knife — 
 
 The breast of human victim bared ? 
 Or, when the blood ebb'd with his life, 
 
 His agonized shrieking heard ? 
 
BORDER SKETCHES AND FOLKLORE. 231 
 
 " Old 'Capon -tree, thou must have seen 
 
 That, of all creatures on this earth, 
 Man to his kind has falsest been 
 
 And cruelest ; yet there is mirth, 
 And joy, and love, and goodness much ; 
 
 Oh ! would that in a world so fair, 
 The beautiful man's heart might touch — 
 
 That crime-bom sorrow were more rare ! 
 
 " Rough savage hordes, with stealthy stride, 
 
 Have wander'd 'mid thy brethren hoar ; 
 And many a host, in warlike pride, 
 
 Has pass'd thee in the days of yore. 
 And holy monk and castellane, 
 
 And knight and baron debonair, 
 Have mingled in the glancing train, 
 
 With courtly prince and lady fair. 
 
 " Ah ! did'st thou see that hapless queen, 
 
 The fair, the wrong'd, not blameless Mary ! 
 She wander'd sure, 'mong paths so sheen, 
 
 When at fair Jedworth she would tarry ; 
 And did the fays among thy boughs 
 
 Not pine to see their charms surpass'd ? 
 Ah ! sunk beneath most cruel woes. 
 
 Unenvied was her fate at last ! 
 
 " 'Twas in yon glen * that Richmond's knight 
 
 Was caught by Douglas in the toil ; 
 In vain were numbers, valour, might — 
 
 The well-plann'd ambush all could foil ; 
 Entrapp'd and conquer'd all, or slain, 
 
 It was the Southron's fate to yield, 
 And Douglas from his king did gain 
 
 Another blazon to his shield. 
 
 This glen is about a quarter of a mile from the capon-tree. 
 
232 THE DENHA.M TRACTS. 
 
 " Old Ferniherst,* whose battled keep 
 
 Still towers embosom'd in the woods, 
 Where, now, all warlike echoes sleep, 
 
 Has rung to sounds of Border fends ; 
 The English, Scotch, and Frenchman'sf shout, 
 
 The clang of arms, the victim's wail, 
 The din of onslaught, siege, and rout, 
 
 Have sped along thy native vale. 
 
 " With thee, old tree, I live again, 
 
 To wander through Jed's forest wide, 
 To see the mail-clad warrior train 
 
 Upon some Border foray ride ; 
 To hear the clang of hound and horn, 
 
 See falcon's stoop, and heron's wile ; 
 Hear matin-chime, at grey-eyed morn, 
 
 From fair St. Mary'sJ hallow'd pile. 
 
 " Sweet Jedworth 1 nestling in the vale, 
 
 Surrounded by the forest lone, 
 Thy beauties grac'd the minstrel's tale, 
 
 And oft to princely guests were known : 
 No princes now with thee remain, 
 
 Thy ancient woods are wede away ; 
 The winds sweep through thy ruin'd fane, 
 
 And monks and abbots where are they ? 
 
 " I love not the unsparing hate 
 
 That would all ancient things reject ; 
 Nothing that e'er has been held great, 
 
 Or good, or true, deserves neglect ; 
 And though we many errors find, 
 
 These errors, once, were view'd as sooth,-^ 
 Were labours of the human mind 
 
 Struggling, as mind is yet, for truth. 
 
 * Ferniherst Castle stands half a mile from the tree, 
 t A.D. 1549. J Jedburgh Abbey. 
 
BOEDER SKETCHES AND EOLKLOKE. 233 
 
 " The human ocean-stream rolls on, 
 
 With hidden depths, and ceaseless tide ; 
 A single wave, now ages gone, 
 
 Will never, in effect, subside ; 
 But still, though all unmark'd by man, 
 
 Will modify the heaving whole : 
 Some acted thought, through all life's span, 
 
 Shall tincture ev'ry living soul. 
 
 " And now, old Capon-tree, farewell ! 
 
 There is an awe bred by the thought 
 That'thou, with silent tongue, dost tell 
 
 Of swarming millions grave-ward brought — 
 Fallen as thou hast shed thy leaves ! 
 
 That glory, honour, gladness, shame — 
 That ev'ry passion which still heaves 
 
 The breast, was and will be the same " 
 
 " Our Capon-tree," says Mr. Hilson, in his Guide to the 
 Scenery and Antiquities of Jedburgh, " is one of the noblest 
 objects in Jed Water. It stands on a little meadow terminating 
 at the third bridge. It is told of John Foster, the celebrated 
 essayist, that he had a peculiar respect for old trees, and with a 
 pleasantry scarcely his own, designated them ' fine old fellows.' 
 There are few who have not shared in the feelings of reverence 
 for the more ancient members of the forest race. While other 
 objects around them recall the passing away of time, they, 
 in a striking degree, suggest the train of pensive reflec- 
 tion. The dismantled castle may present the memorial 
 of olden times, telling the tale of mutation and change ; 
 but a venerable tree has a moral which the dead and inert 
 remains of lifeless strength do not suggest. In the budding, 
 and blossoming, and decline, and in the removal of growth, 
 there is something akin to that human life, with whose progress 
 it may have kept company through long generations of history. 
 
234 THE DENflAM TBaCTB. 
 
 There is something inspiring to the mind in the sight of the 
 monarch of the wood — the oak of a thousand years, casting its 
 arms aloft, and wooing the influence of light and air with the 
 eagerness of the tender sapling. Its castle-like strength of 
 trunk, its massy boughs and doddered angles, its freaks of 
 growth, its bourgeoning world of leaf and branch, spreading far 
 away from the central trunk — the strong but graceful balance of 
 the whole — when seen, as in the Capon-tree, form as noble an 
 object as Nature's out-of-door world presents." 
 
 Alnwick Mercury, July 1, 1862. 
 
 Whittingham Vale. 
 
 " Now I gain the mountain's brow, 
 What a landscape lies below." — Dyer. 
 
 Many of our Northumbrian hills, vales, and villages present 
 pleasing pictures of rural life, calculated to inspire our hearts 
 with love for our native land. They are filled with the elements 
 of poetry ; for not only are the external features beautiful, but 
 they are also the scenes of historic events and old-world legends 
 which people them, as it were, with the busy life of other 
 generations. Englishmen travel into distant lands in search of 
 the wonderful and picturesque, and often leave unvisited richer 
 scenes near to their own homes. Let them wander through the 
 vale of Whittingham, and then say where they will find more 
 charming views and more interesting associations. 
 
 Whittingham is but a small village on the banks of the Aln, 
 which is here a tiny brook ; yet it stands in the midst of 
 memorials of other times ; in the fortlets on the adjoining hills, 
 and in the old weapons found near them, we see footprints of 
 the ancient British people ; the Roman has left his wonderful 
 roads, the Saxon his church, and the Norman his pele tower. 
 
 From Simeon, who wrote his history of the church of Durham 
 
BOEDER SKETCHES AND FOLKLOEE. 235 
 
 in the twelfth century, we learn that Hwittingham was in 
 existence in a.d. 737 and belonged to Ceolwulph king of 
 Northumberland. The name is Saxon, derived from Hwiting, 
 a personal name, and the common termination ham, a town 
 or village, being the town or village of Hwiting. During 
 this troubled period, when England was divided into seve- 
 ral distinct kingdoms constantly at war with each other, the 
 seeming peacefulness and security of the cloister tempted 
 many to devote themselves to a religious life, and take 
 refuge in monasteries. According to the Venerable Bede, 
 nobles as well as private persons left the study of martial dis- 
 cipline and became monks. Ceolwulph, a listless and inactive 
 king, was smitten with the prevailing mania, and after reigning 
 eight years, he resigned his crown to his nephew, Eadbert, and 
 entered as a monk the monastery of Lindisfarne ; he enriched 
 it by his beneficence ; milk and water had previously been the 
 beverage of the monks, but to gladden their hearts he introduced 
 wine ; he brought with him kingly treasures and lands and 
 bestowed upon it the villages of Bregesne (Brainshaugh, near 
 Warkworth) and Wercewede (Warkworth), with all their 
 appendages and with the churches which he had built there ; 
 and besides these, four other villages, Wudcestre, Hwitingham 
 (Whittingham), Eadulfiugham (Edlingham), and Eagwlfingham 
 (Eglingham). Truly royal gifts to a church. No mention is 
 here made of a church at Whittingham, but there can be little 
 doubt that one was built there about this period, or not long 
 afterwards, for the present church still retains distinctive work 
 of Saxon times. Twenty-two years ago such early remains 
 were more extensive ; but unfortunately much of the old Saxon 
 work was destroyed in 1840, when the church was repaired and 
 altered. 
 
 Undoubted Saxon remains are few in North Northumberland ; 
 not even the foundations of dwelling houses, towers, or castles 
 
236 THE DENHAM TBACTS. 
 
 can be traced. Constructed for the most part of wood and clay, 
 the houses were frail and perishable; but the contempt and 
 hostility felt by the proud Normans towards the conquered 
 Saxons led to the destruction of many monuments of Saxon art ; 
 while the fell swoop of the ruthless conqueror, when he wasted 
 and destroyed Northumberland by fire and sword, would reduce 
 all to ruin. Our Saxon relics are all ecclesiastical. Part of 
 the shaft of a Saxon cross supports the font in Rothbury Church; 
 other fragments of Saxon crosses are at Warkworth and Lindis- 
 farne ; and several sculptured stones, remains of the Norham 
 Saxon church, are built up into a pillar in Norham churchyard. 
 But the most interesting relic of the period was taken from 
 Alnmouth Church, and is now preserved in Alnwick Castle 
 Museum ; it is a sculptured cross, with an inscription partly in 
 rude Roman letters and partly in Runic characters. Formerly 
 many of the works of Norman builders were attributed to the 
 Saxons — Alnwick Castle was Saxon, Lindisfarne Priory and 
 other churches with circular arches were represented to be 
 Saxon ; but all such are now known to belong to a later period. 
 And here we may indicate the characters of the Saxon style as 
 seen in churches. It was founded on the Roman type, but of a 
 rude kind, like the imitations made of the works of a civilised 
 people by a race little advanced in art. The masonry of the 
 walls was a rough irregular rubble, or rag, formed indiscrimi- 
 nately of large and small stones and united with a coarse 
 cement ; this rubble was sometimes set, as in Sompting Church, 
 in a framework of narrow vertical strips of stone, extending 
 through the thickness of the wall, and projecting a little beyond 
 it, representing as it were the wooden framework used in con- 
 structing the frailer ordinary dwelling houses. At the corners 
 of the towers there was a peculiar quoining, called long and 
 short work, which consisted of a long stone set upright at the 
 corner, and a short one laid on it and bonding one way or both 
 
BORDEK SKETCHES AND FOLKLOKE. 237 
 
 into the wall. Arches, when large, were semicircular, and 
 rested on a rude impost ; and mouldings were flat and simple ; 
 the windows were small, usually with semicircular and some- 
 times with triangular headings ; but those in the belfry 
 were highly characteristic, for the small windows were 
 double, being divided by a rude balustre set back a little 
 from the front. All these peculiarities are not to be seen 
 in any one building now remaining ; and it is only some of 
 them that appeared in Whittingham Church. Rickman gives a 
 brief account of this church, and a drawing of the tower, as they 
 existed before modern alterations had marred their peculiar and 
 interesting features. At that period, the west end of the aisles 
 and one arch on the north appeared of the same early Saxon 
 style of architecture ; the corners of the tower and the 
 exterior angles of the aisle wall had "the long and short 
 work ; " in the upper stage of the tower there was a double 
 window, the division being made by a rude balustre, and in the 
 lower stage there was another original window with an heading 
 formed by two inclined stones ; and a very plain arch with a 
 large rude impost and a plain square pier remained in the nave. 
 But of these peculiar features there only remain the lower part 
 of the tower, which still shows externally the characteristic 
 Saxon long and short work, and internally portions of a rude 
 double circular arch in the eastern wall. Notwithstanding the 
 storms of eleven centuries have broken over this old tower, the 
 rubble masonry and quoins built of the gritty sandstone of the 
 district are but little decayed ; and now, when there is a greater 
 respect felt for old memorials, may we not hope that, as time 
 has dealt kindly with this tower, man may hereafter lay no 
 ruthless hand on what is left. There is no such old relic in 
 North Northumberland ; it is an architectural type adopted by 
 our early forefathers — an unwritten historical record — and we 
 ought not to be deprived of its teachings and associations. 
 
238 THE DEWHAM TRACTS. 
 
 Leaving the church, we turn aside and meet with a memorial 
 of another period in a strong Border pele, with a vaulted under 
 story, and with walls eight feet in thickness. An original 
 entrance, and a window on the east, evidence that it is an 
 Edwardian structure of the fourteenth century. In a Survey 
 made by Sir Robert Bowes and Sir Raufe Ellerker, in December, 
 1542, two towers were then in a good state. " At Whyttingam," 
 say they, " bene two towers whereof one ys the mansion of the 
 vycaridge and the other of the Inheritance of Eb't Colling- 
 wood Esquier both in measurable good repar'ons." 
 
 These massive square fortresses, now picturesque objects in a 
 peaceful country, recall the period when life and property were 
 insecure from Scottish marauders who lived by plunder. In 
 1460 there were thirty-seven castles and seven or eight of these 
 pele towers in Northumberland. Without such protection men 
 could not live in the district ; and indeed one extensive lordship, 
 the Kidland, was entirely untenanted because there was no 
 tower for its protection. This state of insecurity continued 
 down even to a comparatively late period. Lord Wharton 
 reported on 20th March, 1556, that " the Liddledayle horsemen 
 in the nighte burnte a house a young woman and 16 noute in 
 the same ; and hurt the owner and two other." " The 16th I 
 began," continues he, " the Wardaine court at Alnewik Castle, 
 whear was arraigned James Crosser, Ed. Cross, Robert Graye, 
 Skotts, and Andrewe Noble, Englise rebbele, who confessed 
 their offenses openly. Ed. Cross, Grey, and Noble suffered, 
 and Noble's head was set upon a tower's gait at the towne of 
 Alnewik." " A Book of the losses of the middle marches by 
 the Scotts Theuves, presented at Alnwick on ] 6 April, 1586, 
 gives the names of 37 townes and villages that have been most 
 spoiled in this tyme of peace ; and all or the most parte of them 
 ar within 6 miles of Sir John Forster's dwelling-house and 
 within his office." Then follows a large number of complaints 
 
BOEDER SKETCHES AND FOLKLORE. 239 
 
 with a special account of the losses sustained. The following is 
 an example — " goods taken out of the Lordship of Bewick by 
 the Scotts — est Lilborne, 16 horse and mares, 42 kyne and 
 oxen, 17 score sheep and 20 marks worth of insight (household 
 goods). New Bewick 30 oxen and kyne, 13 score of sheepe, 
 and insight worth 20 marks." A darker picture is drawn of 
 the period by Sir William Bowes in a letter to Sir B. Cecill, 
 January, 1596. " The distrested people are in despair and the 
 country miserable from the horrible murders and incorrigible 
 pride and disobedience of the ravenous malefactors. Touching 
 murders, I cannot yet come by the certane number, but the 
 number is great, the manner horrible ; killing men in their 
 beds. I take it that Buckbage will be found guiltye of murthers 
 above 20 ; Sir Robert Oarr 16. The Bournes and Younge, in 
 revenge of their feede (feud) for one of their name chaunceably 
 slayne in England by Sir Cuthbert Collingwood, his man 
 rescuing from him a poore man's goodes, have murdered 35 
 Collingwoods." The value of the spoyles committed by the 
 Scots in 1587 was estimated at £92,969 6s. 7d. — a great sum in 
 those days. 
 
 A remarkable order was made in 1561 for fortifying the 
 Borders — little closes or crofts were to be enclosed of lands next 
 adjoining every town or village, none to be more than two acres 
 or less than half an acre, so that the towns might be strengthened, 
 free passage prevented, except by narrow ways, hedges and 
 ditches, where a few men may resist and annoy many — the ways 
 between enclosures were to be narrow and crooked, that an enemy 
 or a thief may be met at corners and annoyed by the bow ; these 
 ways were to be made by tenants, farmers, and owners, well 
 ditched with a ditch 4 feet deep and 6 feet broad, with a double 
 set of quicks and some ashes. The great remedy, however, in 
 these dismal times was hanging, and many of the Can's, Youngs, 
 Bournes, Armstrongs, and Elliotts endured this penalty for 
 
240 THE DENHAM TEACT8. 
 
 their lawlessness. The union of the two kingdoms under one 
 monarchy brought this period of rapine and bloodshed to a 
 close ; and when we look back upon these horrors we may feel 
 thankful for the freedom and security now enjoyed in the Border 
 lands. 
 
 The ownership of Whittingham in the middle ages was often 
 changed. In John's reign it was held along with Thrunton, 
 Kyle, and Barton, by Michael, the son of Michael ; in Edward 
 I/s reign, Kobert of Glanton held three parts of it with the half of 
 Glanton; and in the same reign the family of Flamvill had 
 possession of it, one half being held in capite from the king by 
 service of a sparrow-hawk yearly, and the other half on a tenure 
 peculiar to the ancient kingdom of Northumberland, called 
 dr engage, the lowest tenure giving a permanent claim to land, 
 but placing the holder only as a half freeman between the free 
 tenant and villain, for he was obliged to render servile duties in 
 ploughing, harrowing, and sowing his lord's lands. The term is 
 from the Anglo-Saxon dreogan, to work ; and it is still pre- 
 served in the word drudge, applied to a person who performs 
 the lowest kinds of labour. After passing through various 
 changes, the property was in the seventeenth century held by 
 the Border family of Collingwoods ; but George Collingwood, 
 having joined the cause of the Stuarts in 1715, he was executed 
 at Liverpool, and his estates were forfeited to the Crown, from 
 whom they were purchased by Liddell of Eavensworth ; and 
 they are now held by his descendant, the present Lord Ravens- 
 worth. 
 
 Leaving the village, we pass through the great Thrunton 
 Wood, which has an area of 1,500 acres, on to the Thrunton 
 Crags, crossing in our route the branch Roman road, which 
 joined the Devil's Causeway a little eastward of Whittingham, 
 and which passing along the base of the Crags, and away by 
 Holystone, extended to Watling Street) thus connecting the two 
 
BOEDER SKKTCHES AND FOLKLOEE. 241 
 
 great roads which, during the Roman occupation, traversed the 
 county. 
 
 The crags are sandstone, and in some parts rise as cliffs to the 
 height of one and two hundred feet. There are great rents in 
 these rocks and tumbled-down masses, which here and there 
 form caverns. One of these is Weddei-burn's Cave, another 
 bears the name of the Priest's Cave. In times of disturbance 
 and insecurity, when the borders, especially, were subject to 
 plundering and slaughter, such caverns may have been used as 
 hiding places, and have taken their name from the persons 
 who found refuge in them. Some persecuted minister of 
 religion may have found temporary safety in the Priest's 
 Cave, and possibly a freebooting Wedderburn may have 
 escaped death by concealment in the dark recess which bears 
 his name. 
 
 The ascent through the wood to the top of the crags is very 
 steep, but the toil is rewarded by the magnificent view enjoyed 
 over the Whittingham vale. Resting on the summit for a while, 
 we scan over the varied and beautiful features of the scene, and 
 trace the boundary of the geological formations which have 
 impressed their character on the district. The fine conical forms 
 of the porphyritic hills, belonging to the Cheviot range, are seen 
 rolling into each other at the head of the valley. A mass of this 
 rock protrudes like a promontory as far eastward as the Rylcs, 
 and northward in a deep bay we have old red sandstone con- 
 glomerate ; some patches of the Tuedian or lower carboniferous 
 group are in the lower grounds at Garmitage and Crawley Dene. 
 From beneath the sandstone hill on which we rest, there comes 
 out one of the lowest limestones of the mountain limestone 
 group, and in one of the shales, interstratified with it, we found 
 a species of Modiola. The thick beds of sandstone forming the 
 great crags of Thrunton belong to the same formation, and arc 
 a continuation of the ridge which, after bounding the valley of 
 
 VOL. II. F 
 
242 THE DENHAM TEACTS. 
 
 the Till and Breamish at Doddington, Eos Castle, and Bewick, 
 sweeps round by Beanley and Alnwick Moor to Thrunton, and 
 thence in a southerly direction over the bleak upland moors of 
 Northumberland. The broad vale which lies beneath is highly 
 cultivated, adorned with woods, and studded over with halls, 
 villages, and hamlets, forming indeed one of the most beautiful 
 and diversified scenes in Northumberland. 
 
 On the Thrunton Crags, the falcons some time ago built 
 their nests and brought forth their young : but they have 
 been driven from their home by the incessant persecutions 
 of gamekeepers, who ruthlessly shot them as "vermin." 
 Any nobleman might be proud of having such tenants 
 of his rocks, and surely the few rabbits or partridges 
 which might be taken for food should not be grudged, in 
 order that this noble bird may not altogether disappear from 
 our district. 
 
 Callaley Castle Hill is a detached rugged sandstone hill of the 
 same range, somewhat conical in form and densely shrouded 
 with wood. The summit, which is an irregular and broken 
 plain of about two acres, is the site of an old camp, which like 
 most of our early fortlets is rounded in form, but modified to 
 suit the outline of the ground. The rampiers and ditches are in 
 some parts very distinct, and the height from the bottom of the 
 ditch to the top of the rampier is, on the west side, twenty feet. 
 On the north side the escarpment of the hill is very steep, and 
 there is but one rampier ; but there are two on the other sides, 
 and there is a third at a distance of about one hundred yards 
 down the hill on the west side, whence an attack could most 
 easily be made. The ditch in some parts is cut deeply into the 
 sandstone rock. Two entrances are traceable nearly opposite to 
 each other, that on the W.S.W. side crosses the deep ditch by 
 means of a causeway. This fortlet is remarkable, not only for 
 its strong position and the skilful construction of its entrench- 
 
BORDER SKETCHES AND FOLKLORE. 243 
 
 ments, but also for the peculiarity of its inner rampier, which 
 in some parts is formed of stones roughly squared, built up, and 
 even bedded with lime ; and in this it differs from most fortlets 
 attributable to the ancient British people, for their rampiers are 
 usually made of undressed stones and earth. Probably this, 
 originally a Celtic camp, was afterwards occupied by another 
 people, who reconstructed with more art the inner wall. The 
 Komans may for a time have occupied it, for one of the Roman 
 roads passes at a short distance. 
 
 Callaley House stands at the base of the hill on low ground on 
 the site of an ancient pele tower ; and it is the subject of a 
 curious Northumbrian legend, which very probably had its 
 origin in the apparent remains of extensive buildings on the 
 Castle Hill. 
 
 The legend is briefly told thus: — 
 
 A lord of Callaley in the days of yore commenced erecting a 
 castle on this hill ; his lady preferred a low sheltered situation in 
 the vale. She remonstrated ; but her lord was wilful, and the 
 building continued to progress. What she could not attain by 
 persuasion she sought to achieve by stratagem, and availed 
 herself of the superstitious opinions and feelings of the age. 
 One of her servants who was devoted to her interests entered 
 into her scheme; he was dressed up like a boar, and nightly 
 he ascended the hill and pulled down all that had been built 
 during the day. It was soon whispered that the spiritual powers 
 wero opposed to the erection of a castle on the hill ; the lord 
 himself became alarmed, and he sent some of his retainers to 
 watch the building during the night, and discover the cause 
 of the destruction. Under the influence of the superstitions 
 of the times, these retainers magnified appearances, and when 
 the boar issued from the wood and commenced overthrow- 
 ing the work of the day, they beheld a monstrous animal of 
 enormous power. Their terror was complete when the boar, 
 
 i; 2 
 
244 THE DENHAM TRACTS. 
 
 standing among the overturned stones, cried out in a loud 
 voice — 
 
 " Callaly Castle built on the height, 
 Up in the day and down in the night ; 
 Builded down in the Shepherd's Shaw, 
 It shall stand for aye and never fa'. 
 
 They immediately fled and informed the lord of the supernatural 
 visitation ; and regarding the rhymes as an expression of the 
 will of heaven, he abandoned the work, and in accordance with 
 the wish of his lady built his castle low down in the vale, where 
 the modern mansion now stands. — George Tate, F. Gr. S., in 
 Alnwick Mercury, August 1, 1862. 
 
 Traditions of Meg of Meldon. 
 
 Old Man. " And hast thou never, in the twilight, fancied 
 Familiar object, some strange shape 
 And form uncouth ? " 
 
 Thalaba. "Aye! many a time." Southey. 
 
 Seldom has the county historian stooped from his curt and 
 often dry collocation of dates and facts long since forgotten to 
 notice what his reader would more thankfully appreciate, the 
 alleged spiritual occupants that rendered many a spot much 
 more memorable than he, with all his piled-up researches, can 
 ever hope for. More learned and more elaborate than most of 
 those, who have engaged in such laborious works, the last and 
 best historian of Northumberland, the Rev. John Hodgson, of 
 Hartburn, never overlooked those romances of uncultivated 
 
BOEDEE SKETCHES AND FOLKLOBE. 245 
 
 minds ; but was careful to enshrine them amidst the data of 
 charter chests and public records, where they reward the reader, 
 like a dash of verdure amidst rocks hoary with the hues of time. 
 Had he not told us, we should never very well have known why 
 " Meg of Meldon " was stigmatised as a witch while she was 
 alive, and continued to be a ghost so long as there lingered any 
 belief in spiritual beings commissioned to walk the earth after 
 the sun had gone to rest. 
 
 " Meg of Meldon," he says, " would seem to have been 
 Margaret Selby, mother of Sir William Fenwick, of Meldon, 
 who distinguished himself as a royalist in the civil wars, and 
 died in May, 1652. She was a daughter of William Selby, 
 Esq., of Newcastle, and brought to her husband, Sir William 
 Fenwick, of Wallington, a considerable fortune, which, being 
 mortgaged upon Meldon (then belonging to the Herons), was 
 the cause of that manor passing into the possession of the 
 Fenwick family. On the decease of her husband she resided at 
 Hartington Hall, and is represented to have been a miserly, 
 pitiless, money-getting matron. In a picture of her, which was 
 at Seaton Delaval in 1810 (she having been related to the Delaval 
 family, who also had a portrait of her at Ford Castle), she was 
 habited in a round hat, with a large brim tied down at each ear, 
 and in a stiff gown turned up nearly to the elbows, with a 
 vandyked sleeve of linen; the whole shoulders were covered 
 with a thickly-gathered ruff or frill." " She is represented," 
 says Mackenzie, " in the costume of a witch, with a high-pointed 
 liat ; her nose is crooked, her eyes penetrating, and her wholo 
 countenance indicates that superior acuteness, intelligence, and 
 strength of mind, which being so uncommon among an ignorant 
 and barbarous people, acquired her the character by which she 
 is distinguished." * " The investment of her fortune in the 
 
 * Mackenzie's Hist, of Northumberland, ii. p. 394. 
 
246 THE DENHAM TKACTS. 
 
 mortgage of Meldon, and the hard case of the young Heron 
 being forced to join in conveying the ancient seat and lands of 
 his ancestors to her son, were circumstances likely enough to 
 cause a strong popular feeling in favour of the ousted heir, and 
 as strong a hatred to his wealthy oppressors/' 
 
 But besides this drawback to her popularity, Mr. Robert 
 White says, " An opinion is generally entertained by the 
 sagacious people in the neighbourhood that Meg was possessed 
 of a large amount of money besides that which she invested on 
 the manor of Meldon ; and being ever desirous of turning it to 
 account, she frequently laid out heavy sums on such commodities 
 as could be disposed of again to advantage. Amongst these she 
 is said to have dealt largely in corn ; and being enabled, when 
 prices were low, to make extensive purchases, she would, when a 
 rise in the market took place, realise thereby a proportional 
 profit." 
 
 " In addition to her hoarding propensities," continues Mr. 
 Hodgson, " tradition reports that she was a witch, and, being a 
 person of considerable celebrity in her day, she has since her 
 death continued the subject of many a winter evening's ghost 
 tale. She used to go between Meldon and Hartington Hall by 
 a subterraneous coach road, and the entry at Hartington into 
 this underground way was by a very large whinstone in the 
 Hart, called the battling stone, upon which people used to beat 
 or battle the lie out of their webs in the bleaching season. As 
 a retribution for her covetous disposition and practice in un- 
 earthly arts, her spirit was condemned to wander seven years 
 and rest seven years alternately. During the season she had to 
 walk she was the terror of the country from Morpeth to Harting- 
 ton Hall. She frequented those places where she had bestowed 
 her hoarded treasure; but always abandoned them when the 
 pelf was discovered and turned to useful purposes. Many nights 
 of watching and penance are said to have been spent over a well 
 
BOEDER SKETCHES AND FOLKLOEE. 2-47 
 
 a little to the south-east of Meldon Tower, where she had 
 deposited a hull's hide full of gold. The most frequent scene of 
 her midnight vagaries was about Meldon Bridge, along the 
 battlements of which she was often seen running in the form of 
 a little dog. Another of her haunts was in an ancient stone 
 coffin on the site of Newminster Abbey, where those who had 
 the gift of seeing ghosts have seen her sitting in a doleful 
 posture for many nights together. This coffin was called by the 
 country people the trough of the maid of Meldon, and water found 
 in it was a specific in removing warts, and curing many 
 inveterate complaints." Mackenzie says "it is used as a trough 
 for cattle." " One of her most favourite forms was that of a 
 beautiful woman. But she was Proteus-like, and appeared in 
 a thousand forms, lights, and colours, flickering over the Wans- 
 beck, or under a fine row of beech trees, in the lane between 
 the bridge and Meldon Park. The people of Meldon, however, 
 became so familiarised with her appearance as to say when she 
 passed them, ' there goes Meg of Meldon.' Such were the fables 
 with which the calumny of an ignorant and superstitious age 
 aspersed the character and memory of a person who was pro- 
 bably much more enlightened and virtuous than her credulous 
 contemporaries. 
 
 " Within the last century some large fortunes are attributed 
 to the discovery of bags of her gold. That which was deposited 
 in the well near Meldon Tower has never been found ; but the 
 ceiling of Meldon school-house once gave way with the woight 
 of a bag of her money. This occurred while the master was 
 out at dinner, and the varlets who were fortunate enough to be 
 in, and devouring the contents of their satchels at the time, had 
 a rare scramble for the coins." * 
 
 It is related by Mr. Kobert White, on the testimony of a 
 
 " Hodgson's JJial. of Northumberland, part 2, vol. ii. pp. 11, 12. 
 
248 THE DUNHAM TKACTS. 
 
 correspondent, that an attempt was once made by an honest 
 countryman to recover the mass of treasure which had been 
 deposited in the well near Meldon Tower. " He was requested to 
 repair to the place alone, on a particular night, exactly at twelve 
 o'clock, and he would meet another person like himself who 
 would assist him in raising the gold. He was further reminded 
 that to be successful profound silence was necessary to be ob- 
 served. Being a man not destitute of courage, he attended at 
 the time and found the assistant, apparently a decent-looking 
 personage, awaiting his arrival. Having brought with him a 
 piece of chain and a set of grappling hooks, he attached them to 
 a jack roll, which at that period would appear to have been 
 fixed over the well for the purpose of drawing water. His 
 comrade seemed to be perfectly acquainted with the nature of 
 their business, for he rendered him all the assistance in his 
 power, and when a loop was formed towards the middle of the 
 chain the countryman thrust one leg therein, while the other 
 allowed him to descend with all possible care. To his surprise 
 he found the well nearly empty of water, and fastening his 
 grapplers round the money succeeded once more in ascending to 
 the top. Grasping the other handle of the jack he and his 
 fellow exerted themselves so well that the treasure was speedily 
 raised, and the former, seizing it firmly, gave it a swing towards 
 him that he might land it safely on the bank. Unfortunately, 
 however, when he was performing this last important part of liis 
 task, excitement had wound him to the highest pitch ; the store 
 of wealth was about to be placed at his feet, and the words, 
 ' we have her now,' escaped from his lips. This operated like a 
 dissolving spell on what was done, the hooks quitted their hold, 
 the object of his anxiety eluded his grasp and descended again 
 into the well, out of which it is never more to be raised by 
 mortal power. Even tho personage who had assisted the 
 countryman seemed changed from the masculine to the femi- 
 
BOEDER SKETCHES AND FOLKLORE. 249 
 
 nine gender, and appeared to be no other than Meg herself, 
 who, strange to relate, had endeavoured to bestow on the poor 
 man what, had his own folly not marred the design, would have 
 made him ' a gentleman for life.' " * 
 
 I have also met with several kindred relations from an aged 
 native of that part of the country. Some children, while play- 
 ing in the ruinous " castle " or tower of Meldon, where tradition 
 says she once resided, happening to turn over some of the stones, 
 lighted upon a considerable sum of money, of which some got 
 so much as their hats full ; but there had been something not 
 " cannie " about it, for although they made good enough use of 
 it, " it went all away, and they never knew themselves any 
 better for it ; " a very prevalent opinion about evil-got money 
 thus brought to light. 
 
 A stonemason once dreamt that a triangular box filled with 
 gold was concealed underneath a large stone that lay in one of 
 the fields near Meldon, but before making a trial to obtain it he 
 had spoken of the circumstance to some one or other, and sure 
 enough, some days afterwards when he went, the stone was over- 
 turned and a " three-neukit" hole appeared in the midst of 
 where it had lain. Who had secured the treasure was never 
 divulged. 
 
 In troublesome times, my informant went on in substance to 
 say, it was customary to conceal valuables from the clutches of 
 lawless freebooters, in the hope of recovering them when the 
 rights of property became again respected. Of this kind, and 
 not Meg's accursed pelf, is the treasure that, wrapped up in 
 a bullock's hide, was sunk to the bottom of the deep, clear well 
 of Meldon. It was never discovered except on one occasion. 
 Not only had it been revealed to sight, but it had been got hold 
 
 • Richardson's Local Historian's Table Book, Legend. Div., i. pp. 
 l;i,S, 189. 
 
250 THE DENHAM TKACXS. 
 
 of, and two oxen and two horses had been yoked to it and had 
 hauled it to the brim, when one of those engaged spoiled all by- 
 challenging all the fiends of the nether world to do their best, 
 " for we have her now." Scarcely had he made the impious 
 boast when the bag burst asunder, and its ponderous contents 
 went plunging down into the depths and were never seen more. 
 But often still the youngster gazes wistfully down through the 
 crystal waters, unfathomably deepened by the reflection of the 
 blue ether overhead, for he is sure that the treasure is yet 
 there, and may he not cherish the hope that he, as well as any 
 other, may be the lucky one whom it is to raise to plenty and 
 honour ! 
 
 " The infernal machinations of Meg," says Mackenzie, " long 
 continued the terror of the neighbouring villagers. Few of the 
 last age were so foolhardy as to venture through Meldon woods, 
 where it is reported she made her dreadful exit when the 
 sun was below the horizon." Fated only to review at night 
 the domains that it had once been her pride to own, she tarried 
 as long as permitted in the beloved territory, for when the 
 ploughmen went out in the grey dawn to catch their horses she 
 would have been still discernible among the dissolving vapours, 
 "riding in her coach and four upon the Meldon hills." 
 
 She was a true ghost, for, as Mr. Hodgson remarks, it was 
 her particular pleasure to haunt Meldon Bridge, My informant, 
 when a boy, never passed it late in the evening without bracing 
 himself with a sort of defiant exorcism, saying to himself, 
 " What do I fear on Doll [a riding mare] and wee Fanny [his 
 canine attendant] beside me." Meg had not been listening, for 
 he was never put in jeopardy of his life. 
 
 A woman and her daughter were once bringing letters from 
 Morpeth to a Captain Middleton, who then dwelt in that quarter, 
 and night came upon them as they reached a field which they 
 had to cross in going for the bridge. There was a slidit 
 
BOKDEE SKETCHES AND FOLKLORE. 251 
 
 " grimeing " of snow on the path at the time, and from a track 
 of footprints they remarked that a woman had preceded them. 
 When they arrived at the bridge, the mother thought she saw a 
 white woman, some way off', leaning against one of the battle- 
 ments, and " had it in her mind " to say to her daughter, who, 
 not so observant, had perceived nothing, " there's the woman 
 whose footmarks we saw ; " but a feeling as if that was some- 
 thing " not right " made her hold her peace till she had passed 
 the place where the object of alarm appeared to stand, but when 
 she looked back the figure had vanished, and as for the foot- 
 steps, like Lucy Gray's, " further there were none." This is 
 easily explicable. 
 
 " Things viewed at distance through the mist of fear, 
 By their distortion terrify and shock 
 The abused sight." 
 
 But what shall we say of another of Meg's pranks ? An indi- 
 vidual, well known for his scepticism in regard to ghosts, had 
 frequently heard of Meg's achievements in frightening people, 
 but would not credit them. He, however, had no scruple in 
 perpetuating the belief among the credulous, so one mirk night, 
 dressed in white, he placed himself on the parapet wall of 
 Meldon Bridge, and there sat awaiting passers-by. He had not 
 stayed long till he found Meg herself seated alongside of him. 
 " You've come to fley," * said she, " and Fve come to fley, let's 
 baith fley thegither." At the same time she drew herself a little 
 nearer him, while he, jealous of a too familiar intimacy, moved 
 still further along. Meg repeated her movement, and he still 
 shrunk from her approach. She at length came so close as to 
 give him a push, which he hastily attempted to shun, but lost 
 
 Frighten. 
 
252 THE DENHAM TEACTS. 
 
 balance, and fell headlong into the water. Let us hope that 
 Meg was rewarded with a respite for ducking the rival ghost. 
 
 Another adventure in which Meg was concerned was sent me 
 in 1877 by a clergyman in that neighbourhood, in the hand- 
 writing of the narrator, a tradesman, I believe, in Whalton. I 
 shall reproduce it pretty nearly in the language in which it was 
 told. Two dwellers in the hamlet of Thornton who believed in 
 Meg's appearance as a ghost, and a friend of theirs, a Scotchman, 
 who could not be brought to credit it, sat one night after having 
 been at the smithy, in a public-house at Meldon, disputing as to 
 her existence or non-existence as a spiritual visitant. They then 
 left in company for Thornton. At a certain part of the road 
 one of the two believers, named Todd, gave some chains he was 
 carrying from the smith's shop to his mate and fell behind. 
 As soon as the other two were out of sight and hearing he took 
 a short cut across a corner of a field and placed himself behind 
 a hedge at the foot of a bank, a favourite haunt of Meg, and 
 getting himself into the most ghostly style he could assume, he 
 awaited their arrival. The Scotchman came up first, shouting, 
 "Where are ye, Meg? Let's see you, Meg!" when Todd 
 stepped out into view, saying, " Here's Meg, what want ye wi' 
 Meg?" The other lad dropped the chains and made off, and 
 the Scotchman after him. Todd, thinking he had overdone the 
 thing, picked up the chains and ran after them to stop them, 
 but the faster he ran the faster ran they, the tinkling of the 
 chains behind keeping up their terror. The two lads had got 
 upon Meldon Bridge over the Wansbeck, which was then a 
 very narrow and steep structure. At the one end of it they 
 disturbed a kyloe that had got out of a field. This started out 
 as Todd was passing, and "gave a rout," and ran headlong 
 across the bridge behind him. Todd, taking the beast for Meg. 
 increased his speed, the most frightened of the three. Thus 
 thore were throe men and a kyloe all terrified and running at 
 
BOHDEK SKETCHES AND FOLKLORE. 253 
 
 their utmost pith. The three men arrived home in a serious 
 state of fear, from which they were long recovering. The 
 narrator adds a remark of identification. " Todd was said to 
 be the father or grandfather to Jack Todd, the wood wagoner. 
 Both the public-houses in Meldon were closed before my day." 
 
 Stripping off the accessories of these stories, the machinery 
 engages our attention ; and from it we obtain intimations of the 
 native soil of the fragments of ancient beliefs, thus specially 
 localised. The seven years' wandering and alternate rest is akin 
 to the cave that opens its portals once septennially, that its 
 enchanted inmates may be enfranchised ; or to Thomas of 
 Ercildoune's and other waifs that have fallen to the good folks 
 seven years' compulsory residence in Fairyland. The Pixies in 
 Devonshire, for which we have Mrs. Bray's authority, punish 
 those that offend them for the same sacred interval. 
 
 The spirit's appearance as a dog is also in accordance with stand- 
 ard sanction. When the evil one himself assumes the " shape 
 o' beast," a black dog is a favourite form. Thus he appeared 
 to Janet Watson, tried for a witch, 1661; and to cite a Border 
 instance to Kobert Grieve, alias Hob Grieve, the Lauder wizard 
 (tried anno 1649), in a haugh on Galawater, near Stow, " like 
 a great mastiff, bigger than any butcher's dog, and very black, 
 running upon him." {Satan's Invisible World Discovered, 
 p. 35.) The notion may come from the east, where the dog as 
 an unclean animal is held in detestation. " The Turks report, 
 as a certain truth," says Morgan's History of Algiers, " that the 
 corpse of the Heyradin Barbarossa was found four or five times 
 out of the ground, lying by his sepulchre, after he had been 
 there inhumed ; nor could they possibly make him lie quiet in 
 his grave, till a Greek wizard counselled them to bury a black 
 clog together with the body ; which done, he lay still, and gave 
 them no further trouble." 
 
 Wells, marshes, and pools of water actually appear to have 
 
254 THE DENHAM TRACTS. 
 
 been resorted to as places for concealment of articles of im- 
 portance in periods of alarm. In the day of calamity the 
 ancient Briton consigned his bronze cooking utensils to the 
 nearest " well-eye," or peat pit, rather than permit the invader 
 to gain possession of them. 
 
 In Ireland, treasure crocks guarded by huge serpents lie at 
 the bottom of the deepest lakes.* In Wimbell Pond, in Sussex, 
 an iron chest of money is concealed,! and there is a Yorkshire 
 legend to that effect. Some have been enriched by money 
 found in wells. In Sharp's History of Hartlepool we read of 
 one Nicholas Woodifield, farmer at Mainsforth, in Durham, 
 who filled his brogues so well with gold pieces discovered at the 
 bottom of a well, that he purchased the manor of Trimdon, in 
 that county. 
 
 A box of sunken treasure, in Bromley Lake, Northumber- 
 land, was laid under a spell to be won, " by two twin yauds, 
 two twin oxen, two twin lads, and a chain forged by a smith of 
 hind ;" % a myth corresponding to the helpers at the well of 
 Meldon. We find a similar agency and catastrophe repeated in 
 a Yorkshire tale. A person having intimation of a large chest 
 of gold being buried in an artificial mount, called Willy Howe, 
 near Bridlington, " dug away the earth until it appeared in 
 sight ; he then had a train of horses, extending upwards of a 
 quarter of a mile, attached to it by strong iron traces ; by these 
 means he was just on the point of accomplishing his purpose, 
 when he exclaimed — 
 
 ' Hop Perry, prow Mark, 
 Whether God's will or not, we'll have this ark.' 
 
 * Irish Penny Journal, p. 234. 
 t Choice Notes and Queries, Folklore, p. 113. 
 | R. White, in Richardson's Local Hist. Table Booh, Leg. Uif., 
 iii. p. 106. 
 
BOEDER SKETCHES AND FOLKLORE. 255 
 
 He, however, had no sooner pronounced this awful blasphemy, 
 than all the traces broke, and the chest sunk still deeper in the 
 hill, where it yet remains, all his future efforts to obtain it being 
 in vain." * We have the legend with a slight change repeated 
 in Cornwall. Nathan's Keeve is a large round basin, which a 
 fall of water a hundred feet in height has formed out of the 
 solid rock. According to tradition, " there was in it a silver 
 bell, for which some men were fishing, when one who had 
 brought it above water cried, * Thank God, here it is ; ' but the 
 other replying, ' No thanks to him, we have got it without him,' 
 it immediately tumbled in again and there remained." J 
 
 For aught we know an animal's skin would bo the most 
 durable coffer that could be suggested to a rude people. That 
 prankish spirit " Silky's " treasure was " sewed up in a great 
 dog or calf-skin." In the ruins of a round tower in Southwick 
 parish, near Borland, Kirkcudbrightshire, as the tradition goes, 
 there lies somewhere in the foundation a bull hide full of gold, 
 as much as would enrich all Scotland. " Katie Neevie's hoard," 
 in tho parish of Lesmahagow was secreted under a vast stone in 
 the shape of " a kettle-full, a boot-full, and a bull-hide full" of 
 gold.* In the scarcity of manufactured products at an early 
 period of our history the hides of animals performed many im- 
 portant services of which at present we have little idea. The 
 ancient Scot cooked his meat in a cauldron improvised of the 
 skin of the animal that furnished the meal. I have been told of 
 a hideful of tallow in good preservation dug out of a Highland 
 peat moss. Thero are instances in which a hide was employed 
 as a winding-sheet. The body of Hugh Lupus, the great Earl 
 of Chester, who came over with the Conqueror, and who died 
 
 * Hone's Table Book, i. col. 82. 
 
 j - Life and Labours of Dr. Adam Clarice, p. 117. 
 
 X Chnmbcrs' Popular Rhymes of Scotland. 
 
256 THE DENHAM TBACTS. 
 
 before 1120, when discovered in 1723 was first wrapped in 
 " leather," and then enclosed in a stone coffin.* John Forcer, 
 prior of Durham, who died in 1374, was stitched up in an ox- 
 hide at the price of nine shillings, including the tailor's wages ; 
 and the hide was found " tolerably fresh," but the body much 
 decayed, in 1729, when the pavement of that part of Durham 
 Cathedral where he had been laid was under repair. f Tradition 
 in this respect appears to have retained the impress of primitive 
 practices, of which there are no longer any recollections. 
 
 The Drake Stone, Harbottle. 
 
 Near the frowning and rugged crags of Harbottle, in 
 Northumberland, which impart a high degree of sublimity to 
 the adjoining scenery, is the famous " Drake Stone," near 
 the Loughs, which rivals the Bowder Stone in Westmoreland. 
 It is customary with the young men in the neighbourhood to 
 climb up this huge rock, from the top of which there is a fine 
 prospect of the vale below, but it requires considerable dexterity 
 and address to descend. 
 
 The rustics here relate a story respecting the " Drake Stone" 
 with great glee. On one fine summer evening, a few years ago, 
 a stranger arrived at the village. He entered a public-house, 
 and having taken some refreshment, immediately departed. His 
 intention was to ascend the Drake Stone, which he did with 
 little difficulty, and after remaining for some time on the summit 
 of the rock, enjoying the beautiful and extensive prospect, the 
 deepening gloom warned him that it was time to depart, and he 
 therefore set about descending the dangerous rock, but in vain. 
 He looked at the yawning depth below and shuddered at the 
 
 * Defoe's Tour through Great Britain, ii. p. 366. 
 J Raine's Durham Cathedral. 
 
BOISDEE SKETCHES AND FOLKLORE. 257 
 
 prospect of attempting to descend ; further, the night was closing 
 in, not a human being was in sight, and the poor traveller in an 
 agony of fear was obliged to content himself with remaining' on 
 the cold rock with the starry heaven for a canopy. Wrapping 
 himself up in his garments as well as he could, he laid him 
 down to obtain, if possible, some repose. To sleep, however, 
 was not in his power, the knowledge of his situation made him 
 to lie awake anxiously awaiting the break of day. Early on 
 the following morning the inhabitants on rising were surprised 
 to hear a human voice, " loud as the huntsman's shout," bawling 
 lustily for assistance. Seeing his danger, they immediately pro- 
 ceeded to the stone, and by proper means and some exertion he 
 was safely extricated from his very perilous situation where he 
 had passed so sleepless a night. 
 
 Harbottle is not only distinguished by one of the most perfect 
 Saxon camps in the county, but it is also remarkable as being 
 the birthplace of General Handyside, whoso regiment is noticed • 
 by uncle Toby in Tristram Shandy. — Alnwick Mercury, Aug. ] , 
 1863. 
 
 Legends of Brinkburn. 
 
 The history of Brinkburn Priory, by Mr. F. R. Wilson, the 
 architect, so far as it can be traced from an elaborate study of 
 the remains of the buildings, and in incidental notices from old 
 writers, forms one of those local monographs that of late years 
 have added so much to the value of the Transactions of the Ber- 
 wickshire Naturalists' Club. 
 
 With the " Book " or Chartulary of Brinkburn still inacces- 
 sible to public research, Mr. Wilson does well to assume 
 " that there are many chapters in the history of Brinkburn yet 
 untold." 
 
 The contributions that we now present are written neither on 
 sculptured stone nor in old dim writs hard to be deciphered, 
 VOL. II. s 
 
258 THE DENHAM TRACTS. 
 
 but have been preserved by faithful tradition even until now, 
 and what we have to do is to render them accurately as they 
 have been delivered to us, so that the popular interest in the 
 ruined monastery on the Coquet may also have its abiding 
 record. 
 
 The Hunter and his Hounds. 
 
 Under a grassy swell, which a stranger may know by its 
 being surrounded with a wooden railing, on the outside of the 
 priory, tradition affirms there is a subterraneous passage, of 
 which the entrance remains as yet a secret, leading to an apart- 
 ment to which access is in like manner denied ; and as these 
 visionary dwellings are invariably provided with occupants, it is 
 asserted that a hunter who had in some way offended one of the 
 priors was, along with his hounds, by the aid of enchantment, 
 condemned to perpetual slumber in that mysterious abode. 
 Only once was an unenthralled mortal favoured with a sight of 
 the place, and of those who are there entombed alive. A shep- 
 herd, with his dog attending him, was one day listlessly saunter- 
 ing on this verdant mound, when he felt the ground stirring 
 beneath him, and springing aside he discovered a flat door — 
 where door had never before been seen by man— yea, that door 
 opening upwards of its own accord on the very spot where he 
 had been standing. Actuated by curiosity, he descended a 
 number of steps which appeared beneath him, and on reaching 
 the bottom found himself in a gloomy passage of great extent. 
 Groping along this warily, he at last encountered a door which 
 opening readily he, along with the dog, was suddenly admitted 
 into an apartment illumined so brilliantly that the full light of 
 day seemed to shine there. This abrupt transition from dark- 
 ness to light for some minutes deprived him of the power of 
 observing objects correctly, but gradually recovering he beheld 
 enough to strike him with astonishment, for on one side, at a 
 
BOEDER SKETCHES AND FOLKLORE. 259 
 
 table with his head resting on his hand, slept one in the garb of 
 a hunter, while at some distance another figure reclined on the 
 floor with his head lying back, and around him lay many a noble 
 hound ready as ever, to all appearance, to renew that fatal chase 
 which consigned them all to the chamber of enchantment. On 
 the table lay a horn and a sword, which, seeing all was quiet, 
 the shepherd stepped forward to examine, and taking up the 
 horn first applied it to his lips to sound it. But the hunter, on 
 whom he kept a watch, showed symptoms of awakening when- 
 ever he made the attempt, which alarming him he replaced it, 
 and the figure started no longer. Reassured, he lifts the sword, 
 half draws it, and now both men became restless and made some 
 angry movements, and the hounds began to hustle about, while 
 his own dog, as if agitated by the same uneasiness, slunk towards 
 the door. Alive to the increased commotion and hearing a 
 noise behind him, very like the creaking of hinges, he suddenly 
 turned round and found to his dismay that the door was moving 
 to. Without waiting a moment he rushed through the half- 
 closed entrance, followed by his dog. He had not fled ten paces 
 when, shaking the vault with a crash, the door shut behind him 
 and a terrible voice assailed his ears, pouring maledictions on 
 him for his temerity. Tho fugitive traversed the passage at full 
 speed, and gladly hailed the light streaming in at the aperture 
 above. The shepherd quickly ascended the steps, but before he 
 got out the cover had nearly closed. He succeeded, and that 
 was all, in escaping perhaps a worse fate than those victims of 
 monkish thraldom whom he had just left ; but his poor dog was 
 not so fortunate, for it had just raised its fore parts to come up 
 when the door fastened on it and nipped it through. 
 
 This story being a family inheritance of the European race of 
 people has obtained a wide circulation, and there are many 
 modes of telling it, answerable to the far-separated localities to 
 which it it has been adapted. We recognise it in the banished 
 
260 THE DENHAM TRACTS. 
 
 Saturn reposing in a cave on a remote desolate coast ; * in the 
 Seven Sleepers of Ephesus;t in the seven foreign brethren, 
 in Eoman habits, lying in a profound slumber, in a cave on 
 the shores of the ocean, in the extreme northern confines of 
 Germany ; % in the three founders of the Helvetic confederacy, 
 whom herdsmen call the three Tells, who sleep in their antique 
 garb, till Switzerland's hour of need, in a cavern near the 
 lake of Lucerne ; § in Ogier the Dane or Holger Danske, 
 enchanted in the vaults of the Castle of Cronenburgh ; || in 
 Frederick Barbarossa miraculously preserved to unite the 
 Eastern and Western Empires, in the Kylfhausen Berg in 
 Thuringia, or, according to another legend, in the Untersberg, 
 near Salsburg ; IT but in the latter place the tradition vacillates 
 betwixt him and the great Emperor Charles V .; ** and in the 
 legend of the tomb of Rosencreutz, as told in the 379th number 
 of the Spectator. Transferred to Britain, it has peopled the 
 mountain and sea-side caves with enchanted warriors and hunts- 
 men. Of King Arthur and Sewing-shields I have already 
 written in the Borderers' Table Booh. The story crops out in 
 the tale of the "Wizard's Cave" at Tynemouth.ft The 
 correct legend about Dunstanborough Castle tells that its 
 
 * Plutarch. 
 
 f Gibbon. 
 
 + Paulus Diaconus de Gestis Longobardum, lib. i. c. 4. Olaus 
 Magnus Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus, Soma;, 1555, lib. i. c. 3. 
 
 § Mrs. Herman's Works, ii. p. 65. Quarterly Review, March, 
 1820. 
 
 II Inglis's Journey through Noru-ay, Siveden, and Denmark, p. 
 290, 291. Quarterly Renew, tibi sup. 
 
 H Menzel's History of Germany, i. p. 487. Quarterly Review, 
 1820. 
 
 ** Keightley's Fairy Mythology, p. 234 
 
 •ft Hone's Table Bool; ii. p. 747-750. 
 
BOEDER SKETCHES AND FOLKLORE. 261 
 
 chieftain was charmed with his hounds, his sword, and bugle- 
 hom, and enclosed in one of the vaults of that ancient fortress ; * 
 the adjuncts of Monk Lewis, Service, and others being 
 imaginary. At Fast Castle the adventurer comes out a hoary- 
 headed man, minus his coat-tails. In the Cheviots the cave 
 contains "three men in armour" surrounded with their 
 " hounds, hawks, and horses." f Sir Walter Scott in 
 an early poem makes them an army assembled by the spells 
 of Sir Michael Scott to aid Halbert Kerr.J Sometimes 
 they are to return with Thomas of Ercildoune; and mean- 
 while remain entranced within the chambers of the Eildon 
 Hills. § The vault at Roslin holds alive a warrior who may 
 be approached every seven years ; and the difficulty to free him 
 here, as well as elsewhere, depends on the choice of the horn or 
 the sword. Thomas the Rhymer, with a mighty host, lies asleep 
 under Tom-na-hurich, a mountain near Inverness. 
 
 " Beside each coal-black courser sleeps a knight ; 
 A raven plume waves o'er each helmed crest, 
 And black the mail which binds each manly breast, 
 Girt with broad faulchion, and with bugle green. — 
 Say, who is he, with summons strong and high, 
 That bids the charmed sleep of ages fly ; — 
 While each dark warrior rouses at the blast, 
 His hom, his faulchion grasps with mighty hand, 
 And peals proud Arthur's march from Fairy-land ! " 
 
 Leyden. 
 
 * Widdrington, a Tale of lledgely Moor, by James Hall, p. 84. 
 Alnwick, 1827. 
 
 f Poems by Robert Davidson of Mm-cbattlc, p. Hi. 
 
 \ Locklmrl's Life of Sir Walter Scott, i. p. 310, &c. 
 
 § Scott's Demonologu, p. l."3 ; where a similar story is cited 
 from Reginald Scott's Discovery oj Witchcraft . Ley den's Poetical 
 HemuiiiK, p. ;!."i7. 
 
262 the denham tracts. 
 
 The Bells of Brinkburn. 
 
 Centuries ago, one of the priors of Brinkburn presented the 
 bells of that building to the priory of Durham. They had been 
 the pride of the secluded sanctuary on the Coquet, for their 
 tones were possessed of great power combined with sweetness, 
 and many tempting offers had Durham made to secure them, 
 but hitherto to no purpose. But she prevailed at length, and 
 the bells so coveted were removed from the tower and dis- 
 patched on horseback on their way to Durham, under the care 
 of some monks. They journeyed till they reached the river 
 Font, which owing to a quantity of rain having fallen was 
 much swelled. However, they prepared to ford it ; but when 
 the horses reached the middle of the stream the bells bysome 
 means fell, or according to the popular belief were removed 
 from the backs of the horses by miraculous interposition, 
 and sank to the bottom. Owing either to the dangerous state 
 of the stream, or from the bells being unwilling to be removed, 
 the exertions of the monks to recover them proved unavailing ; 
 so they returned to Brinkburn and reported the disaster. But 
 the Brinkburn prior determined not to be baffled, sent forth- 
 with a messenger to Durham to request the presence of his 
 brother prior, and both ecclesiastics then proceeded with a fidl 
 attendance to liberate the imprisoned bells, and lo ! the 
 superior abilities of high church functionaries over humble 
 monks were manifest to every one. For they had no sooner 
 ridden into the stream, than the bells were lifted with ease; 
 and being conveyed to Durham, were lodged there in safety. 
 To this day it is a saying in Coquetdale that " Brinkburn bells 
 are hoard at Durham ; " and Wallis, in his History of 
 Northumberland, assures us that the bells of Brinkburn were 
 removed to the cathedral on the banks of the Wear. Still there 
 art; doubters. Waller White in 185'.), sav.s " the deep pool 
 
BORDER SKETCHES AND FOLKXOKE. 263 
 
 where the bells were lost is still to be seen in the river" 
 [Coquet] ;* and Mr. Wilson is positive that some years 
 ago, " a fragment of the bell was found buried at the root of a 
 tree, on the hill on the opposite side of the river." f 
 
 I fear that several of the tales of " flitted" bells are popular 
 myths. Thus tradition says that the bell of Coldingham 
 Abbey was transported to Lincoln, and is still there. J It 
 was a popular opinion that the bells of Jedburgh Abbey were 
 lost in the Tweed opposite Kelso, in an attempt made to feriy 
 them across. Another tradition is " that they were carried off 
 to Hexham, and fitted up to adorn the venerable cathedral 
 there." § Of the bells of the abbey of Cambuskenneth in 
 Clackmannanshire, it is reported that one was for some time in 
 the town of Stirling, but that the finest was lost in its passage 
 across the river Forth. || The bell of Morvern Church had 
 been transferred from Iona. T There is a tradition that St. 
 Maree used to preach at a place called Ashig, on the north-east 
 coast of the Isle of Skye, " and that he hung a bell in a tree, 
 where it remained for centuries. It was dumb all the week till 
 sunrise on Sunday morning, when it rang of its own accord till 
 sunset. It was subsequently removed to the old church of 
 Strath, dedicated to another saint, where it ever afterwards 
 remained dumb ; and the tree on which it had so long hung 
 after withered away." ** Bells were sometimes not satisfied 
 
 * Northumberland and the Border, p. 187. 
 
 ■(■ Berwickshire Naturalists' Club's Proceedings, iv. p. 140. 
 
 X Fullarton's Gazetteer of Scotland, i. p. 290. Hunter's 
 Coldingham Priory, p. 75. 
 
 § Hilson's Guide to Jedburgh, p. 15. 
 
 || Fullarton's Gazetteer, i. p. '2S'.i. 
 
 •[ Dr. N. M'Leod in Good Words, 1863, p. 8o7. 
 
 •• Dr. \V, Reeves on St. Maclrubha, in Proceeding* of Society 
 of Antiquaries oj Scotland, vol, iii. p. 2'J1. 
 
264 THE DENHAM TRACTS. 
 
 with their new positions. They required to be tied, till they 
 were reconciled to the change. Many of them, says Brand, 
 " are said to have retained great affection for the churches to 
 which they belonged, and where they were consecrated. "When 
 a bell was removed from its original and favourite situation, it 
 was sometimes supposed to take a nightly trip to its old place of 
 residence, unless exercised in the evening, and secured with a 
 chain or rope.* 
 
 The tolling of the bell of Brinkburn Priory was once the 
 occasion of the burning of the pile by a party of marauding 
 Scots, who would not have discovered its situation, so densely it 
 stood embosomed in woods, except for this imprudence, f 
 
 Mr. Wilson says the fairies lie buried at Brinkburn. This 
 mortality, unheard of elsewhere, must have been attributable to 
 the potency of the bells. Half a century ago the bell of the 
 parish kirk of Hounam, in Roxburghshire, fell ; in consequence 
 of which the banished fairies reassembled from the ends of the 
 earth, to resume their revelry on the green banks of the Kale. 
 But the mischief that they perpetrated was insufferable, and as 
 a remedy the bell was reinstated, when matters were restored 
 in statu quo ante.% This is true to the general belief about 
 these beings. " There is a hill near Botna, in Sweden, in which 
 formerly dwelt a troll, a sort of Scandinavian fairy. When 
 they got up bells in Botna Church, and he heard the ringing of 
 them, he is related to have said : 
 
 " Pleasant it were in Botnahill to dwell, 
 Were it not for the sound of that plaguey bell." 
 
 u It is said that a farmer having found a troll sitting very dis- 
 consolate on a stone near Tiis lake, in the island of Zealand, 
 
 * Brand's Popular Antiquities, ii. 136. 
 
 | Richardson's 'Table Book, Leg. Div., i. p. 223. 
 
 $ Davidson's Poems, p. 100, &c. 222, 2i 
 
 o. 
 
BOEDER SKETCHES AND FOLKLOEE. 265 
 
 and taking him at first for a decent Christian man, accosted 
 him with ' Well ! where are you going, friend ? ' ' Ah ! ' said 
 he, in a melancholy tone, ' I am going off out the country. I 
 cannot live here any longer, they keep such eternal ringing and 
 dinging!' "* 
 
 Superstitions connected with Holed Stones. 
 
 In the western part of Cornwall there are several ancient 
 monuments known by the name of " Holed Stones." They 
 consist of thin slabs of granite, each being pierced by a round 
 hole, generally near its centre. They vary in size and in form. 
 The monument to which I would now more particu- 
 larly call attention is at Tolven Cross Formerly it was 
 
 a conspicuous object by the wayside ; but within the last twelve 
 or fourtoon years a house has been built betwixt it and the road. 
 It now forms part of a garden hedge. In a field adjoining the 
 opposite side of the road, perhaps eighteen j-ards from the stone, 
 is a low irregular barrow, about twenty yards in diameter and 
 studded with small mounds. Dr. Borlase has alluded to the 
 superstitious practice of drawing children through the holed 
 stone at Madron to cure them of weakness or pains in the back, 
 a practice still observed at the holed stone at St. Constantine. I 
 was told that some remarkable cures had been effected there 
 only a few weeks since. The ceremony consists of passing the 
 child nine times through the hole alternately from one side to 
 tho other, and it is essential to success that the operation should 
 finish on that side where there is a little grassy mound, recently 
 made, on which the patient must sleep with a sixpence under his 
 head. A trough-like stone, called tho " cradle," on the eastern 
 side of tho barrow, was formerly used for this purpose. This 
 
 * KviglilU'v's Fairy Mi/l/ivhy//, p. 11:.'. 
 
266 THE DENHAM TEACTS. 
 
 stone unfortunately has long been destroyed. That holed stones 
 were not originally constructed for the observance of this pecu- 
 liar custom is evident, for in some instances the holes are not 
 more than five or six inches in diameter. A few years ago a 
 person digging close to the Tolveh discovered a pit in which were 
 fragments of pottery, arranged in circular order, the whole being 
 covered by a flat slab of stone. Imagining that he had disturbed 
 some mysterious place, with commendable reverence he imme- 
 diately filled up the pit again. Taking the proximity of the 
 barrow in connection with the pit, it seems most probable that 
 the Tolven is a sepulchral monument, stones of this kind being 
 erected perhaps to a peculiar class of personages. — Alnwick 
 Mercury, Oct. 1, 1869. 
 
 Warnings. 
 
 In treating of warnings believed to be sent to relatives before 
 the death of their near connections, I speak of incidents that 
 were communicated by parties who, as it is expressed, have 
 long since " gaen to their place," it is hoped to a better one, 
 for worthy, well- living people they were, although haunted with 
 the infirmity of a superstitious foreboding. They are all from 
 humble life. E. H., on the night on which her grandfather 
 died, was engaged in darning stockings in the house of her 
 half-sister, whose grandfather this was not, when she heard as 
 if a person was moaning in the adjacent cottage. Her half- 
 sister, who was in bed, on its being alluded to, said she had not 
 heard any noise ; and when she went out to inquire at the other 
 house they were at rest in bed, and she could not obtain an 
 answer. When she returned and resumed her work, she 
 became once more conscious of the sounds of distant moaning. 
 When morning arrived, there was nothing the matter with the 
 people in the oilier house ; but three days afterwards, when 
 
BOEDER SKETCHES AND FOLKLORE. 267 
 
 the news came of her relative's decease, she found that the 
 time corresponded with that during which she had been listen- 
 ing to those mysterious tokens of human agony, but her relative 
 had passed away quietly without a murmur. 
 
 The same grandfather had also been forewarned, once in his 
 lifetime, of some approaching calamity before the death of his 
 first wife. On returning from selling some sheep, he saw 
 before him the vision of a man, with a corn rope or band in 
 his hand, as if he were preparing to tie up a sheaf, which 
 vanished from before his eyes when he reached the spot where 
 it appeared. 
 
 Her father and another man, when once thrashing with the 
 flail in the barn, heard twice or thrice a singular noise, as if 
 something was screwed down from the roof, and then fell on 
 the floor. Her father, thinking it was fire, went to extinguish 
 it with his foot. " Ah ! " said the other man, who had appre- 
 hended its ominous character, " ye needna tramp it oot, it's a 
 warning for you an' for me." And accordingly, shortly after 
 that, the other man had one of his children, and her father his 
 wife and two of his children, carried off by fever. 
 
 These are Berwickshire occurrences, but the same creed was 
 prevalent about the same period in Northumberland. An old 
 man who lived on Tyneside told me that three sharp taps had 
 been applied to the window before his first wife died, but they 
 were not taken into account till all was over.* He had an 
 aunt who had got a token of the death of all her kindred except 
 one, whose wraith she was vouchsafed to behold instead thereof. 
 One day she was surprised to see this relative, who was a 
 carrier, on a day customary for him to be elsewhere, approach- 
 ing towards her across a lea, within view of the door of her 
 
 * For death-warnings by tluv distinct knocks on the bed's-liead, 
 see Aubrey's MitatluiifS, \i[>. 121-2, Loudon, 1721. 
 
268 THE DENHAM TEAMS. 
 
 house, where she stood. She remarked to a neighbour, who 
 was also looking out at her own door, what could have brought 
 such a one there at that time of the week; but her neighbour, 
 who may not have perceived anything, made no relevant reply. 
 On that very day the carrier was drowned in crossing the 
 Tyne, the water being stiff, and he seated on a pack-horse 
 was hampered in directing its movements, and swept away. 
 This same dame also felt so sure of her sagacious prescience, 
 that she on one occasion foretold the death of one of her 
 neighbours, a lass possibly consumptive, who sold milk. 
 Having asked one of the place who had been purchasing 
 her morning's supply of milk how she was, the answer was, 
 " Weil ! " " Aye," says she, " she'll flit soon," and she died 
 next day. 
 
 A joiner's wife in the country above Hexham got a " token " 
 of her husband's death. It was on a Sunday, and he had gone 
 to church, and she being left at home was on the outlook at 
 the period when she expected his return. She saw him on his 
 way back, as she thought, go past a dike-end, but he was so 
 long in arriving afterwards that she wondered, and again went 
 outside the house ; and although the whole of the road was in 
 view, she saw nothing of him. After a short suspense, how- 
 ever, her husband reached the house, but took to bed that after- 
 noon and never left it. 
 
 A man in Wooler heard three raps before his father died. 
 His father dropped down suddenly shortly afterwards at Wooler 
 " High Fair." 
 
 These stories may be accounted trivial, but they show the 
 incipient stages of still more extravagant beliefs, and some of 
 them have no doubt been propagated traditionally. The 
 narrators will sometimes express their unbelief by the qualify- 
 ing statement that " wc needna mind thae freits," or it's "just 
 an aukl frcit." 
 
BORDER SKETCHES AND FOLKLORE. 269 
 
 Again, A. C. believed that she had a warning of the death 
 of her daughter shortly before she departed. She and her 
 husband were watching beside the sick bed, when, at four 
 o'clock in the morning, she heard a rap on the bed-head. 
 " Ah ! " she exclaimed, addressing her husband, "my daughter's 
 gone. Did you hear that ? " He rose, and observed that the 
 child was asleep ; but in the afternoon of that day, at four o'clock, 
 the hour foreshadowed, the child died. 
 
 Another woman had got warnings of the death of all her 
 brothers except one, who still survived, far away from his 
 native district, or much communication with her, being resident 
 in the vicinity of London, while she dwelt in the northern part 
 of Northumberland. Poor people who have no other earthly 
 ties are much perplexed about the welfare of their relatives out 
 of reach of being visited. In this instance, for about a week, his 
 sister had most troublous dreams regarding her last brother, 
 and told a friend of her apprehensions for his health. This was 
 about three weeks before word reached her of his sudden illness, 
 and a letter following announced his death. 
 
 Another individual dreamt of witnessing the marriage of a 
 neighbour who was already a married man, but who was at 
 present from home at a distance. While he was relating the 
 circumstances of his dream to his wife, this man came homo 
 taken badly and died shortly after, for, said the narrator who 
 told these stories and thoroughly believed them, " to dream of a 
 marriage is a sign of death." 
 
 From the same party I derived a specimen of some warnings 
 believed in among the colliery population near Newcastle. Near 
 Heaton, a woman was returning one night from a visit to one of 
 her gossips who was sick and lived about a mile away. As she 
 passed the mouth of a certain pit near tho road she saw, as it 
 were, a white female rise up, who in a short time grew in size 
 and assumed the shape of a white galloway of fiery temper, which 
 
270 THE DENHAM TRACTS. 
 
 struck the coals about the pit mouth with its heels, as if 
 pawing in eagerness to cleave the clouds, causing the particles 
 to fly so as even to reach her, and while she was concerned 
 about the annoyance this occasioned her it had vanished. 
 Although she never had had any experience of such apparitions, 
 she augured disaster from it, either to her friend or the pit. 
 One to whom she told it was sceptical and declared he would go 
 next night to the pit at one o'clock and see if there was any 
 truth in the vision, and wonderful to tell he beheld the same 
 wild thing she had done, and was so overcome that he swarfed 
 for fear. It was seen by another party a third time, and the 
 next day after four men were killed in the pit. 
 
 In a letter from Mr. Denham, dated October 27th, 1852, he 
 gave me a good example of a wraith, from Westmoreland, which 
 may be appropriately told here. " I have heard a curious relation 
 of two men, father and son (the latter of whom I knew for forty 
 years, and he only died this year), seeing the ghost of a naked 
 woman in crossing a lonesome moor in Westmoreland by night. 
 What is singular, the one said to the other, it is so and so, 
 naming the female whom both knew. On getting to their home, 
 some two or three miles distant, the first news which met their ear 
 was the death of the individual above alluded to in childbirth, 
 nearly an hour previous. This relation has ever occurred to me 
 as the most simple and singular ghost story that ever I met with. 
 The name of the father was Isaac Nelson, of the son, John. 
 They were natives of Westmoreland, and respectable yeomen." 
 
 The following is from Bee's Diary, January 17th, 1684-5: 
 "Departed this life John Borrow (of Durham), and 'twas 
 reported y* he see a coach drawn by 6 swine, all black, and a 
 black man satt upon cotch box ; he fell sick upon't and dyed, 
 and of his death soverall apparations appeared after." 
 
 A dog at one place gave three tremendous yoicls, in the dead 
 of night, before a person died. It came to the door for the 
 purpose and had to be driven away. 
 
BORDER SKETCHES AND FOLKLORE. 271 
 
 In the vicinity of Kendal, in Westmoreland, a cock-crowing 
 at night is often considered as ominous of something evil to the 
 family. "A few years ago," says Mr. Pearson in a paper on 
 tho Superstitions of Westmoreland, " I had a servant, an elderly 
 man, who was much disturbed because the cock took it into his 
 head to crow in the night-time, frequently before we went to 
 bed. Whenever this was the case, it was perceived that it threw 
 him into no small perturbation. He was afraid that either death 
 or some great calamity would occur to some of us. And what 
 was indeed curious, a female to whom he was much attached 
 did indeed die soon afterwards, so that there is no doubt he is 
 more than ever confirmed in the belief that a cock-crowing in 
 the night is ominous of death or some great misfortune "* 
 
 In Fifeshire, I was told by an acquaintance, an old cock — for 
 had it been a young one it would have been the less thought of — 
 crew about eight o'clock at night. A person was sent out, who 
 caught and brought it into the house, and "threw its neck 
 about." This was a death-omen to the family, unless the spell 
 had been reversed by killing the cock. 
 
 Dr. Beattie, tho poet and philosopher, evinced " a singular 
 but deep-rooted aversion all his life for the crowing of a cock ; " f 
 perhaps it arose from this popular superstition about cock- 
 crowing. 
 
 In Westmoreland, " a dog howling three times, a cock crow- 
 ing the same number before midnight, putting a stocking on 
 wrong side out — theso are all considered very ominous things, 
 and bring a gloom on a weak mind which will last a whole 
 week."* 
 
 In North Northumberland it is said that " the coroner never 
 
 • London Saturday Journal, March 31, 1841, vol. i. p. 131. 
 ■)• Sir W. Forbcs's Life of Beattie, ii. p. 243. 
 | Loudon Saturday Journal, vol. i. p. 134. 
 
272 THE DENHAM TEACTS. 
 
 comes once but he comes twice/' i.e. if one fatal death occurs, 
 two will be sure to follow. Also, if one breaks a dish, it is said 
 " there are other two to break yet," i.e. to be broken. In the 
 parish of Llanymynech, in Montgomeryshire, " there is a saying 
 much credited that ' if one dies there will be three, if four die 
 there will be six.' This signifies, that whenever a funeral takes 
 place there are generally two more within a short time, and 
 should there happen to be four there will be two more." * If 
 one has anything stolen from them it is a token of evil to follow, 
 was believed in at Newcastle. In Montgomeryshire " the loss 
 of articles of common use, or even the dropping of them acci- 
 dentally, is thought to be a token." f 
 
 If one dream that a tooth is out it is a sign of a relative's 
 death. 
 
 An old man had got warnings at the death of all his children 
 who had died, but one was still left to him. One day a drop of 
 blood gathered at his nose, which he observing, exclaimed sor- 
 rowfully, "Ah! my son's dead." It was too true, for a letter 
 arrived next day which confirmed the omen. 
 
 There is a good description of a Warning, agreeable to the 
 popular belief, in the Border novel of Matthew Paxton, the scene 
 of which is laid in Northumberland, close to the Tillside. 
 
 "Before the story had lost its first freshness in my mind, an 
 aunt of mine, far away in Liddesdale, was very ill, though I 
 knew it not, sick unto death, and my mother was away west to 
 see her, when one night I was riding by myself alone along a 
 very lonely road far away from any house, on my way home 
 from a day's visiting, at a part of the road where nobody could 
 be hiding to fright me, I heard my name called three times, 
 
 * John Fewtrell in Montgomeryshire Collections by Powys-Land 
 Club, vol. xiii. p. 125 (1880). 
 t Ibid., p. 126. 
 
BORDER SKETCHES AND FOLKLORE. 273 
 
 Matthew, Matthew, Matthew, in a voice I could not clearly 
 mind, but so like my mother's or my aunt's that I thought it 
 was one of them. I did not think much of it at the time, but a 
 few days after I got a letter from Liddesdale, with a black seal, 
 and saw that my aunt had died at that very hour that I had 
 heard the voice, so I could not help connecting these things in 
 my own mind and thinking it was a warning from the depart- 
 ing spirit to me." * 
 
 Physical Endowments or Impekfeotions. 
 
 It is a belief not only in the north of England but also on the 
 Continent, that the seventh son of a family, born without any 
 girl intervening, is endued with sovereign virtue — the power 
 once attributed to crowned heads — of healing diseases by the 
 touch, and that he is destined to be a skilful and eminent phy- 
 sician/)- As an attestation of his capabilities, a representation of 
 " the seven starns " is believed to be impressed on his side or 
 his breast. A medical practitioner, near Newcastle, to flatter 
 one of his customers, told a mother that she should make her 
 newly-born seventh son a doctor. '"Deed," she says, "I havena' 
 the means to make him a doctor, but if ye'll take him yersell, 
 and make him one, you're welcome to hao him, as I've dealt 
 sae lang wi' ye." If a seventh daughter appeared in uninter- 
 rupted succession, she was to be a witch. 
 
 On October 17, 1663, one William Moulthrope, a Pontefraet 
 labourer, was called in question for speaking seditious words of 
 Charles II. Among other expressions which he used were 
 these: "What is the king better than another man? for 
 Robin Bulman (meaninge one Robin Bulman, of Pontefraet, 
 
 * Matthew Paxton, 3 vols , London, 1854, vol. ii. pp. 181-2. 
 f See also Aubrey's Miscellanies, p. 129. 
 VOL. II. T 
 
274 THE DENHAM TEACTS. 
 
 laborer), a seaventh sonne, can cure seaven evils, and the kinge 
 can but cure nine, soe that the kinge is but two degrees better 
 than Eobert Bulman."* A prescription in the Physician of 
 Myddvai, p. 456, for the cure of warts is: " Wash the warts 
 with the water from a font in which the seventh son of the same 
 man and wife is baptised." 
 
 A popular but strange remedy for sleep-walking, is the 
 peculiar attribute of individuals born with their feet first. A 
 benevolent and even sensible old lady, thus privileged " in life's 
 morning march," once rose from what proved a mortal illness 
 to cure her grandchild who was afflicted with this unreasonable 
 restlessness. This she did by stamping nine times with her 
 naked feet on his breast. 
 
 In Northumberland there are what are called "evil- eyed" 
 and " bad-handed " people. Those who have the misfortune to 
 labour under the latter imperfection, if they set a cletch of 
 chickens, or even handle the eggs, they will miscarry. Mrs. 
 Fen wick, a farmer's wife, has been notified to me as having a 
 " bad hand," and the servants had to set the cletch of chickens. 
 
 Egg-setting, I am told, is not such a simple process as one 
 would think, but has to be gone about after a form, and has 
 annexed to it certain well-established conclusions. I will here 
 place a few of its saws and observances, which are from Ber- 
 wickshire. 
 
 It takes thirteen eggs to a cleckin, odd numbers being lucky. 
 
 " Wet-fited " ('meaning web-footed) " beasts sit a month, and 
 hens three weeks." 
 
 If eggs are set before the sun go down they come out cocks ; 
 if later in the evening hens are hatched. 
 
 If eggs are attempted to be set on a Sunday the chickens will 
 " not come out." 
 
 * Depositions from York Castle, p. 101. 
 
BOKDEE SKETCHES AND FOLKLOEE. 275 
 
 Housewives don't set eggs in May, although it is confessed 
 that when set in that month they produce the strongest birds. 
 
 The Sign of Life. 
 
 Professor Lebour, of the University of Durham College of 
 Science, New castle, furnishes me with a somewhat singular super- 
 stition, which I have not seen noted elsewhere, called " The 
 Sign of Life." " The expression is one," he writes, " I have 
 only met with in the neighbourhood of Falstone, up North Tyne, 
 where a peculiar tremulous involuntary twitching of the eye 
 is said to be the ' Sign of Life,' and if repeated a certain number 
 of times (three times, I think) in a month or a year (I forget 
 which) is supposed to portend great things, but what things — 
 whether good or bad — I cannot remember. My chief informant 
 with regard to this mysterious ' Sign of Life,' was Mrs. Rob- 
 son, the postmistress of Falstone, a very mine of local know- 
 ledge. My wife informs me that in the south of England 
 (Hampshire and Wiltshire) the same thing is called ' Living 
 Blood.' " 
 
 Virtues of Irish People. 
 
 A cow in the Wooler district having been stung by an adder, 
 an Irish woman, who laughed all the while at the people's 
 application to her, was brought to stroke or rub the swelling 
 occasioned by the poison. She was also called on to rub the 
 throat, when "the pap o' the hass came down." It is also 
 believed that if Irish people spit all round a toad the animal will 
 die. On this subject, see Mr. Henderson's Folklore, p. 166. 
 
 The Evii- One. 
 
 A great fear of the presence of the Evil One evoked in- 
 advertently pervaded the popular mind. One of the propitia- 
 
 T 2 
 
276 THE DENHAM TEACTS. 
 
 tory names given to the malign being was " Owd Harry.'' 
 "As cunning as Owd Harry" is a popular phrase. An old 
 wife had a grown-up son called Harry, whose Christian name 
 she had a maternal pride in unnecessarily repeating. On one 
 occasion she was heard saying to him, " Harry, Harry, my 
 son Harry, I daurena ca' ye Harry at neet, for fear the deil 
 should come." 
 
 After death, and before the deposit of the inanimate body in 
 the tomb, watch was placed over it, lest the archfiend should 
 claim it — if deceased was one of his disciples — as a perquisite 
 that had fairly lapsed. Long ago in a country place in Berwick- 
 shire some neighbours were watching beside the corpse of one 
 who had been a very wicked man. One of the company, 
 happening to go out to the door, beheld a large misshapen 
 animal coming up a field towards the house, not quite straight- 
 forward, but questing backwards and forwards, as if in search 
 for prey. He called out the rest of the company to see the 
 ill-looking thing, but they speedily drew back and shut the door. 
 Not long after the door opened, and a big dark man entered. 
 All betook themselves to prayer. Some raved nonsense, others 
 did not know what to do in their perplexity. The man ap- 
 proached the bed ; but prayer being maintained he went away, 
 " not being commissioned further," as my informant suggested. 
 This is a piece of simple peasant lore without exaggeration. 
 
 " The alarm often experienced by country people on their 
 seeing a balloon descending on their fields is well known. A 
 singular instance is said to have occurred on the Scottish border. 
 A shepherd who tended his ' peaceful people,' saw, with con- 
 sternation, the aerial phenomenon immediately overhead and 
 fled precipitately. The voyager shouted, and threw down a 
 crown-piece in hope of tempting him to render assistance. The 
 shepherd, seeing the shining bribe and hearing the voice, guessed 
 with whom he had to deal, and turning his head towards the 
 
BOEDEE SKETCHES AND FOLKLORE. 277 
 
 supposed arch-fiend, cried out : ' Na, na, Satan ! Sauney 
 defies thee ! ' " (T. H. Bell, Alnwick, in Newcastle Mag., ii. 
 (1823), p. 351.) 
 
 In the case of the will of Thomas Hopper, of Medomsley, son 
 of Humphrey Hopper, who died insane 1575-6, the father acts 
 as if he considered his disease as being diabolical possession and 
 practices exorcism. " The said Umphray conjeured the devyll 
 when his sone was madd and raved."* The son " kend not his 
 owne father when the said Umphra went to the doore, and came 
 in againe and asked the said Thomas, ' Whoe am I ? Am I 
 not thy father ? ' And he, the said Thomas, wold say, ' Thou 
 art the blak devell of Edeedsbrig.' And then the sayd Um- 
 phray saynd the said Thomas and corssed (crossed) hym, and 
 spyttyd, and said, ' Away, devell/ many times. "f During one 
 violent paroxysm the attendant could not control the patient, 
 and was obliged to waken the father to assist. " Then this 
 examinato cauld of the said Umphray out of his bedd, which, 
 seinge hys sone, the said Thomas, in that radg, maid a compas 
 about his said sone Thomas bedd, and spytted and said, ' Fye, 
 away, thou fowell theife, that comes to tempt us,' sainge to his 
 son Thomas many times, ' Thou or I have oifended God.' "\ 
 
 There was one Cuddy (Cuthbert, a common name in St. 
 Cuthbert's territory) Blacket, who lived at Howburn or 
 Holborn, in Lowick parish, in the era of Buonaparte's wars, 
 and being a volunteer he had occasion to come and go to 
 Belford to undergo military training. One night he got 
 fuddled, and in returning home was passing over a stone laid 
 for a bridge across a ditch or burn in the Bogle House Plant- 
 
 * Depositions and other Ecclesiastical Proceedings at Lurliam, 
 p. 271. 
 t Hid,, p 272. 
 \ lliitl., p. 275. 
 
278 THE DENHAM TRACTS. 
 
 ing. He might have been lost on the broad heathery moor that 
 surrounds it, but at this juncture he foregathered with a gentle- 
 man dressed in black who conducted him to Howburn. He 
 was the civilest gentleman he ever encountered, but before he 
 had gained an undue influence over him he chanced to glance 
 at his feet, and behold ! they were cloven. The Bogle-houses 
 — houses in Lowick Forest, consisting of a few humble 
 cottages inhabited by pitmen — was an uncanny place, notable 
 for ferlies being seen about it and unearthly noises being heard, 
 which may have been only the wailings of the wind exaggerated 
 by the fears of the lonely dwellers. 
 
 Divinations. 
 
 Sowing hempseed is part of the Halloween ritual as pre- 
 served by Robert Burns. In Northumberland its practice does 
 not appear to have been confined to the epoch of that festival. 
 The direction is : Go in at one door of the barn and out at 
 another, and while sowing the hempseed say : 
 
 " Hemp seed I sow tliee 
 And she (or he) that is to be my true love, 
 Come after me and mow thee." 
 
 On looking over the left shoulder the form of his or her lover 
 will be seen cutting down the visionary crop. To deter one 
 making the experiment, it is told that a too curious girl, having 
 gone through the operation, was shocked on looking behind to 
 see a coffin. This was practised in Dorsetshire on Midsummer 
 eve. (W. Barnes, in Hone's Year Book, 1175.) 
 
 Another form of prying into the future was to go to the 
 churchyard and look through the keyhole; but unfortunately 
 my informant had forgotten the remainder. 
 
BOEDEE SKETCHES AND FOLKLOEE. 279 
 
 Put your shoes with the soles turned upwards beneath your 
 pillow as you turn in to sleep and repeat, 
 
 " I hope this night that I may see, 
 The woman that's my bride to be ; 
 Not clothed in her rich array, 
 But in clothes that she wears every day," 
 
 and you will be favoured in a dream with a sight of her who is 
 destined to be your wife. The person who told me this had 
 gone through the performance successfully. One day after the 
 trial, when riding out, he passed a girl and said to himself this is 
 she of whom I dreamt. He had a firm conviction that, although 
 a stranger, he had seen her before. They became acquainted, 
 and subsequently were married. 
 
 In Dorsetshire if a girl, " at going to bed, put her shoos at 
 right angles with each other, in the shape of a T, and say, 
 
 " Hoping this night my true love to see, 
 I place my shoes in the form of a T " 
 
 she will be sure to see her husband in a dream, and perhaps 
 in reality by her bedside." (W. Barnes, ubi sup.) 
 
 " Whenever I go to lye in a strange bed I always tye my 
 garter 9 times round the bed post, and knit nine knots in it, 
 and say to myself : 
 
 ' This knot I knit, this knot I tye, 
 To see my love as he goes by ; 
 In his apparel'd array, 
 As he walks in every day.' " 
 
 Connoisseur, No. 5G. 
 
 " You must bo in anothor county, and knit, the left garter 
 about tho right-logged stocking (let the other garter and stocks 
 
280 THE DBNHAM TRACTS. 
 
 ing alone), and as you rehearse these following verses, at every 
 comma knit a knot : 
 
 1 This knot I knit, 
 To know the thing, I know not yet, 
 That I may see, 
 
 The man (woman) that shall my husband (wife) be, 
 How he goes and what he wears, 
 And what he does all days, and years.' 
 
 " Accordingly in your dream you will see him ; if a musician, 
 ■with a lute or other instrument ; if a scholar, with a hook or 
 paper." (Aubrey's Miscellanies, p. 137.) 
 
 " A gentlewoman that I knew confessed in my hearing that 
 she used this method, and dreamt of her husband, whom she had 
 never seen. About two or three years after, as she was on 
 Sunday at church (at Our Lady's Church in Sarum), up pops a 
 young Oxonian in the pulpit. She cries out presently to her 
 sister, ' This is the very face of the man I saw in my dream.' 
 Sir William Soames's lady did the like." * 
 
 " Lovers in an open passage at night sought to see through 
 the meshes of a riddle the form of their future partners in con- 
 nubial life."f 
 
 This custom is said to have been common in Northumberland 
 without any form of words, it being sufficient to secure a dream 
 of one's lover, when in a strange bed, to tie the garter round 
 the bedpost. 
 
 If one eats a red herring raw to supper, and goes to bed 
 backward, not saying a word, he will dream of his future wife 
 before the morning. 
 
 On the appearance of the first moon after the new year, look 
 
 * Aubrey's Miscellanies, pp. 137-8. 
 
 | Hodgson's Hist, of Northumberland, part 2, vol. ii. p. 329. 
 
BOEDER SKETCHES AND FOLKLORE. 281 
 
 through a black silk handkerchief unwashed at it, and you will 
 see by the number of moons visible the number of years that 
 will elapse before you are married. In the Glasgow Mechanics' 
 Magazine, No. 60 (1825), we have a query : " Observe the new 
 moon through a silk napkin, and the number of moons visible 
 will denote her age in days. This holds good till she is five or 
 six days old. What is the cause of this phenomenon ? " There 
 are few young people in the country who have not tried this 
 experiment. 
 
 Another way with the moon is to charm it thus : " At the 
 first appearance of the new moon after New Year's Day (some 
 say any other new moon is as good), go out in the evening and 
 stand over the spars of a gate or stile looking on the moon, and 
 
 say: 
 
 ' All hail to the moon, all hail to thee, 
 I prithee good moon reveal to me 
 This night, who my husband (wife) must be.' 
 
 <( In Yorkshire they kneel on a ground-fast stone- You must 
 presently after go to bed. I knew two gentlewomen that did 
 thus when they were young maids, and they had dreams of 
 thoso that married them." * 
 
 At Wooler servant girls tie their left-leg stocking round 
 their neck in order to dream of him whom they were to get for 
 a husband. The first cut of " baby's cheese " is used to dream 
 upon with similar intent ; so also is a portion of the plateful of 
 cake thrown over the bride's head immediately before she 
 enters her future home, as well as a narrow piece of the bride's 
 cake passed nine times through the wedding ring, this being 
 
 * Aubrey's Miscellanies, p. 138 ; quoted, but not exactly, in Mr. 
 Henderson's Folklore, p. 115; the omitted particulars are worth 
 knowing, and therefore I repent it. It is said to be customary in the 
 Highlands of Scotland (Napier's Folklore, p. 98). 
 
282 THE DENHAM TRACTS. 
 
 done of purpose for " dreaming pieces." Sops are made in 
 beer, and a ring introduced, and then they are supped, and the 
 first to whom the ring falls is to be first wed. 
 
 6. Although both Mr. Denham and Mr. Henderson have 
 treated of the " Even-ash " leaf, they have not the exact North- 
 umbrian formula. The leaf of the ash which has an equal 
 number of divisions on each side, which is very difficult to 
 obtain, is pulled with the following rhyme : 
 
 " Even, even, ash, 
 
 I pull thee off the tree, 
 The first young man that I do meet. 
 My lover he shall be." 
 
 It is then placed in the left shoe. It is also said, " Even- 
 ash, under the shoe, will get you a sweetheart." 
 
 The same friend, now deceased, who supplied me with the 
 above from Long Benton, communicated, in 1845, the following 
 varieties of divining in a small way. 
 
 " Scalding pease is common. My mother has seen a bean placed 
 in a swad, the receiver, whether male or female, is to be first 
 married. On Carling Sunday, in some parts of Northumber- 
 land, fried pease are served up on a dish. Every one of the 
 company is furnished with a spoon ; they help themselves in 
 regular succession, until the quantity is too small to allow of 
 that mode of division. They then dole out one at a time, 
 and whoever gets the last will be first married. 
 
 11 Saint Agnes's Fast. — My father knew a woman who tried this 
 charm, but contrary to the usual number of one, saw actually three, 
 the last of whom had a wooden leg. This woman had the second 
 man whom she saw in her dream, when she told my father of the 
 circumstance ; adding that she thought it very improbable that 
 she would get the third, as he (a neighbour) had then a wife 
 alive, and sho had a dislike to his wooden leg ; but who can 
 
BOEDER SKETCHES AND FOLKLORE. 283 
 
 control the fates ! this man's wife dying, and her husband also, 
 she so far conquered her aversion to his timber toe as to become 
 his for better for worse." 
 
 On the eve of St. Agnes's day (January 21), says Brand,* 
 " many kinds of divination are practised by virgins to discover 
 their future husbands. This is called fasting St. Agnes's Fast." 
 
 " Hupperless to bed they must retire, 
 Nor look behind nor sideways ; but require 
 Of heaven with upward eyes for all that they desire."f 
 
 " In Scotland, a number of young men and women met 
 together on St. Agnes's eve at midnight, went, one by one, to 
 a certain field and threw in some grain, after which they 
 repeated the following rhyme : — 
 
 ' Agnes sweet, and Agnes fair, 
 Hither, hither, now repair ; 
 Bonny Agnes, let me see 
 
 The lad who is to marry me. ' " 
 
 The shadow of the destined bride or bridegroom was 
 supposed to be seen in a looking-glass on this very night."J 
 " On St. Agnes night, 21 day of January," says Aubrey, 
 " take a row of pins and pull out every one, one after another, 
 saying a pater noster (or Our Father), sticking a pin in your 
 sleeve, and you will dream of him or her you shall marry ."§ 
 
 Near Kendal " there were ceremonies in use not long 
 ago of rather an awful nature, which for those who had the 
 courage to use them were said to yield the desired information. 
 
 Pop. Antiq., i. p. 21. 
 
 f Keats' Eve of St. Agnes, st. vi. 
 
 \ English Folklore, by the Rev. T. F. Thisclton Dyer, p. ] 81. 
 
 § Aubrey's Miscellanies, p. l:)G. London, 1721. 
 
284 THE DENHAM TRACTS. 
 
 One was to walk backwards round a church three times on a 
 certain night in the year, and then sit down in the porch, when 
 the ghosts of their intended husbands or wives would pass 
 before them; but if they were unfortunately not destined to 
 enjoy that happy state, then they would see the apparition of 
 their coffins. I recollect when a boy hearing an old man aver 
 that he had gone through this trying ordeal ; and that the 
 apparitions of his two wives passed before him in the order he 
 afterwards married them."* Something similar to this was 
 practised in Yorkshire on St. Mark's eve, but it required three 
 years' continuous vigils — See Brand's Pop. Antiq., i. p. 115 — 
 also on Midsummer eve, when all that were to die that year in 
 the parish passed by in procession into the church. {Ibid., 
 p. 170.) 
 
 To this class of beliefs belongs the superstition about the 
 " She-Holly," which I first related in the Local Historians' 
 Table Book, iii. pp. 254, 255 ; but as that work is out of print 
 and becoming scarce, I may now transfer it here. 
 
 In Northumberland holly is divided into two kinds, he and 
 she. He has prickles, but of she, being the upper leaves of the 
 tress, 
 
 " Smooth and unarmed the pointless leaves appear." 
 
 The leaves of the she -holly possess the wondrous virtue, if 
 gathered in a proper manner, of exciting dreams concerning 
 that momentous topic — a future husband or wife. To ensure this 
 the leaves must be plucked upon a Friday evening, about mid- 
 night, by parties who, from their setting out until next day at 
 dawn, must preserve unbroken silence. They are to be col- 
 lected in a three-cornered handkerchief, and after being brought 
 
 * Mr. Pearson on Superstitions of Westmoreland, &c, in London 
 Saturday Journal, i. p. 131 (1841). 
 
BORDER SKETCHES AND FOLKLORE. 285 
 
 home, nine of the leaves must be selected and tied with nine 
 knots inside the handkerchief, and then placed underneath the 
 pillow. A dream worthy of all credit will be the issue. 
 
 My informant was once the leader of a party in an expedi- 
 tion that promised, by means of these potent holly leaves, to 
 unlock the secrets of futurity. It consisted of himself, at that 
 time a farm labourer, of his master's sister, and the female 
 servant. When decent folks had gone to bed these three mad- 
 caps set out in profound silence for the tree, which stood at a 
 farm homestead at a considerable distance, and having got 
 there they provided themselves with the requisite supply. On 
 their way back it added much to the frolic that each endea- 
 voured to induce his or her fellows to break, in a heedless 
 moment, the silence essential to the rite. This, though produc- 
 tive of much mirth, elicited no profane vocable. As the head 
 of the party lived at a separate farmhouse, it was previously 
 agreed that if on going home he should be refused admittance 
 he was to return, and his two companions would provide him 
 with a bed beside the master. The difference between master 
 and servant at that period was not so wide as to make this to 
 be reckoned an impropriety. He went home and knocked, 
 but as he would not answer the questions put to him he was 
 forced to return to his master's house, into which he was 
 admitted by his expectant partners. At the time he entered 
 his master's bedroom, which was upstairs, the master happened 
 to be asleep ; and he having undressed as quietly as possible and 
 prepared his holly, crept in behind him. This, however, roused 
 the slumbering farmer, who was surprised to find his bed 
 invaded in this unceremonious way. " Wha's thou?" he 
 shouts out. No reply. "Is thee, Geordy?" (his first-born, 
 who lived at an off-farm). Deep silence. " Is thee, Tommy? " 
 (another of his sons). No answer. " Is't thee, Michael?" 
 (the real person). Michael heard him well enough, but pre- 
 
286 THE DKKHAM TKACTS. 
 
 tended to snore in sleep. The farmer in some perplexity was 
 about to don his garments and descend to the kitchen to inquire 
 after his singular bedfellow. It was well he did not, as the 
 parties below would have equally tantalised him with dumb 
 show. As it was, they were both stationed at the bedroom 
 door, ill-able to restrain their pent-up mirth. The farmer at 
 length, supposing the intruder to be actually asleep, and that 
 he could be none other than he had surmised, judged it most 
 advisable to follow his example. When morning arrived the 
 whole thing was explained, and the farmer enjoyed a hearty 
 laugh at his own share in the pantomime. The result of the 
 matter was that Michael had a dream, in which he saw two 
 damsels, of whom, the thoughts of the evening being uppermost, 
 the master's sister was one, but neither of them was she — or 
 rather they, for he was twice married — whom he afterwards led 
 before the priest. 
 
 In the island of Bute there is a " dreaming tree " of a 
 different species. This is a very lofty pine which grows in the 
 centre of au enclosure called the " Devil's Caldron," near St. 
 Blane's Chapel, at Kilcatan Bay. This " dreaming tree " to a 
 great height " is divested of its foliage by those who wished to 
 test its supposed qualities by breaking off small pieces to put 
 under their pillows."* 
 
 The game of " keppy ball," as played at Alnwick, at the 
 "coban tree," is another example of rural divination, although 
 confined to children. I shall again avail myself of an article of 
 my own, contributed to a local journal, " On Covin, Coban, or 
 Capon Trees." Dr. Jamieson, in his Scottish Dictionary, says 
 that in Roxburghshire the covin-tree signifies " a large tree in 
 front of an old Scottish mansion-house, where the laird always 
 met his visitors." A corruption of it is supposed to be " coglan- 
 
 Wilson's Guide to Rothesay, p. 131. 
 
BOEDER SKETCHES AND FOLKLORE. 287 
 
 tree." He derives it from the French convent, convention or 
 agreement ; which again is from the Latin conve?itum, a 
 covenant, or conventus, an assembly. Covent, Anglo-Norman, 
 is a covenant or agreement in " Morte Arthure." The witches 
 of Auldearn met in covines, and the prettiest of them was called 
 the maiden of the covine. The covin-tree is thus a variety of 
 the trysting-tree, whose name and functions as the place of 
 summons in the old " Riding" era, as the spot where rural 
 lovers met and plighted troth, or where the exchanges of ser- 
 vices and commodities held and still hold their convention, are 
 indelibly impressed upon northern language and literature. Sir 
 Walter Scott, in a note to his Letters on Demonology and Witch- 
 craft, p. 277, holds the same view as Dr. Jamieson. " The tree 
 near the front of an ancient castle was called the covine-tree 
 probably because the lord received his company there." 
 
 " He is lord of the hunting-horn, 
 And king of tho covine tree ; 
 He's well lov'd in the western waters, 
 But best of his own Minnie." 
 
 When on a visit to Alnwick in 1861 I found it to be well 
 understood that a tree, called there a coban or covan tree, onco 
 Btood before every old castle (within a bowshot of Alnwick 
 Castle for instance), and it was there the lord met his guests. 
 And there used to be, and still is, a rhyme having reference to 
 it, sung by young girls while playing at " keppy ball," or catch- 
 ball, against a tree. From tho time they can keep up the ball, 
 they also divine their future prospects as to matrimony or 
 spinster life. 
 
 " Keppy ball, keppy ball, covine tree, 
 Come down tho lang loanin' and tell to me, 
 The form and the features, the speech and degree, 
 Of the man that is my true lover to be. 
 
288 THE DENHAM TEACTS. 
 
 " Keppy ball, keppy ball, coban tree, 
 Come down the lang loanin' and tell to me, 
 How many years old (her name) is to be — 
 
 " One a maiden, two a wife, 
 Three a maiden, four a wife, 
 Five a maiden, six a wife," &c. 
 
 And so on, the odds for the single, the even numbers for the 
 married state so long as the ball can be kept rebounding against 
 the tree round which they play. 
 
 The Scottish covin and Northumbrian coban trees being 
 thus identical, it is shown that capon trees such as that at 
 Brompton, in Cumberland, and the capon tree on the Prior's 
 haugh at Jedburgh, are of the class, the letters v, b, and p 
 being mutually interchangeable in European languages. Mr. 
 Tate, to whom I owe the rhyme, in return adopted my theory. 
 See History of Alnwick, i. p. 436. 
 
 Tuening the Riddle. 
 
 A much less excusable form of divinations is that called 
 ''Turning the Riddle." The following is a lively instance: 
 One Moll Ha' (Mary Hall) in Wooler, overintimate with 
 Satan, was accustomed to resort to this malpractice, at the 
 instance of applicants, whenever anything was lost or stolen. 
 She turned it and named the thief, and thus " gliffed " (or 
 frightened) them to make restitution. One Jenny Sim, having 
 had purloined some caps and shifts from a washing laid out to 
 dry, had recourse to her, after other means of recovery failed. 
 " The old folks of Wooler mind it well ; what a day that was ; 
 all the houses shook as if stirred by an invisible wind," for she 
 had actually bought up the prince of the power of the air.* 
 
 * To this wo find a parallel in the evidence, April 1, 1670, of 
 
BOEDER SKETCHES AND FOLKLORE. 289 
 
 That this was a very prevalent practice appears from the 
 Depositions before the Courts at Durham and those kept at 
 York Castle, published in two of the volumes of the Surtees 
 Society, Nos. 21 and 40. 26th January, 1566-7, Margareta 
 Lambert, against Elizabeth Lawson. " John Lawson, husband 
 of Elizabeth, informs that the said Margaret is an exorcist, 
 ' that for certaine things lackinge she turned a seve upon a pair 
 of shores.' "* She was also a reputed " charmer." Between 
 1561 and 1577, one Allice Swan, wife of Robert Swan, made tt 
 confession after the minister in St. Nicholas Church at New- 
 castle, upon Sunday after the Sermon, for turning the riddle and 
 Bheares. To this iniquitous act she had been recently incited 
 by the means and procurement of Margaret Lawson, Anne 
 Hedworth, Elizabeth Kindleside, Agnes Rikerbye, Anne Bewike, 
 and Jerrerd Robison. And "not having the feare of God" 
 before her eyes, " but following the persuasion of the devell," 
 she had " of a filthie lucre and under colour of a singular and 
 secret knowledge of lost things, used by the space of certen 
 yeres to cast or tourne the riddle and sheares, a kind of divi- 
 nation or charming expressedly forbidden by G-ode's lawes and 
 the Queue's Majestie."f I 11 1573, Thomas Hardye, of Morpeth, 
 shoemaker, had as a hired man one John Bell, who was " sus- 
 
 Margaret, wife of Richard Wilson, who "sayth, that in her former 
 husband John Akers' life-time, she once lost out of her purse 50a. 
 all but three halfe-pence ; and, shortly after, there hapned to be a 
 great wind, and after the wind was downe she mett with Anne 
 Wilkinson, who fell into a great rage, bitterly cursing her, and telling 
 her that she had bene att a wise man, and had raisd this wiud which 
 had put out her eyes, and that she was stout now she had gott her 
 money againe." — Depositions from York Castle, p. 177. 
 
 • Depositions at Durham, p. 84. 
 
 f Ibid., p. 117. 
 
 VOL II. U 
 
290 THE DENHAM TEACTS. 
 
 pect of michery (knavery) and untreweth concerning a shirt of 
 one Thomas Somer," his fellow- workman, now servant to Eobert 
 Turner of Felton. While residing at Morpeth "bytwixt 
 Christenmas and Easter," Somer had " his shirt goon [taken 
 away] , and maid moch to do for yt ; and the said Bell moved 
 this examinate to make no wonder for yt, and said for a grote 
 of this deponent's pursse he shuld cause the said shirt to come 
 againe, saing that he, the said Bell, reported that ther was a 
 wyff in Newcastell, his cosinge, thatculd torne theryddle, etc.; 
 and within thre days nexl after this examinate found his said 
 shirt that was a laking. And then the said Bell demandyd 4d. 
 of this examinate, and this deponent wold not agree to gyve the 
 said Bell any thing unless he wold tell hym who had his said 
 shirt he lacked." The consequence was that the Aldermen of 
 Morpeth, and the representatives of the shoemaker trade, dis- 
 charged Bell from working in that town till " he had brought 
 them a certificat frome the said wyffe of Newcastell, that she 
 could tell of things that weir stolne ; but this he failed to do, 
 and therefore he was accounted " to be no honest man." Bell 
 required of Somer " 6 names of everge syd of his neighbours," 
 along with the 4d., to give to this " wyf of Newcastell that wold 
 turne the redell, and get him the shirt within a weack." * 
 
 At Newcastle, February 15, 1659-60, Elizabeth, wife of George 
 Simpson of Tynemouth, fisher, was accused for practising witch- 
 craft, and besides she was reported to be a charmer, "and 
 turnes the sive for money."-)- On December 13, 1598, the wife 
 of Thomas Grace, of the parish of Stannington, Northumber- 
 land, was presented " for turninge of the ridle for things loste 
 and stolne." The Rev. John Hodgson in noticing this case 
 says a pair of spring shears were commonly used with the 
 
 * Depositions at Durham, pp. 251, 252. 
 f Depositions, $c.,from York Castle, p. 82. 
 
BOEDER SKETCHES AND FOLKLOKE. 291 
 
 riddle, " and of their own accord turned round when the name 
 of the person who had stolen the goods pursued was called over 
 them."* 
 
 "Dec. 10, 1667. Cumberland. Before Thos. Denton, 
 219. Mary, wife of Stephen Johnson, of Carleton, saith, that, 
 us shee was coming from Clifton, shee met with Jo. Scott, whoe 
 told her that his wife had cast the riddle and sheares for some 
 cloathes of George Carre's that was stole ; and one Jo. Webster 
 of Clifton, told them that they knew as much as he could tell 
 them, and that it was a little bleare-eyed lasse that gott them, 
 whoe lived neare them." The Rev. James Kaine, who quotes 
 this example, informs us that the formula used by the operator 
 was as follows : 
 
 " By St. Peter and by St. Paul 
 
 If has stolen 's 
 
 Turn about riddle and shears and all." j 
 
 Dec. 12, 1596, the wife of Thomas Grace, of Stannington, 
 Northumberland, was presented at a visitation for turning the 
 riddle for things lost or stolen. (Hodgson.) 
 
 Chakming. 
 
 Charmers and fortune-tellers, as distinct from witches, have 
 long maintained their trade in the north of England, nor is the 
 belief in " spaeing women " yet obsolete, even in the busiest 
 haunts of industry on the Tyne or Wear. There are several 
 examples recorded in the depositions before the Ecclesiastical 
 Courts at Durham, which carry back the practice to a remote 
 poriotl. In October, 1446, Mariotde Belton and Isabella Brome 
 
 * Hodgson's Hist, of Northumberland, part ii. vol. ii. p. 329. 
 f Depositions, $c.,from York Castle, p. 82, note. 
 
 U 2 
 
292 THE DENHAM TRACTS. 
 
 were accused of this crime. The first was blamed for being a 
 diviner by lots, and in particular of telling disengaged women 
 desirous of being married that she had the power of causing 
 them to obtain those on whom their affections were set. She had 
 to clear herself by twelve hands of honest women, i.e. six people, 
 her neighbours, who became security for her. Isabella for 
 a similar cause was cleared by four hands. In October, 1450, 
 Agnes Bowmer, late of Witton, was summoned for forecasting the 
 future by lot. She as well as the others denied the allegations.* 
 23 March, 1451-2, Joh. Davison and Alicia Davison were 
 summoned, and Alicia the mother compeared. It was alleged 
 against her that she used divination by lot, which consisted in 
 being a mediciner, in what manner is not specified, with lead 
 and comb and iron (" utetur arte medical ' cum plumbo et pect ' 
 et ferro c ") f- 4 Feb., 1566-67, John Lawson accused of 
 defaming Margaret Lawson by calling her " a chermer," his 
 reply being that it had been so reported-! In Oct. 20, 1663 
 one Nicholas Battersby, of Bowtham, in Yorkshire, exercised 
 the art of a wise man, having had " skill in the discoveringe of 
 those persons that had stolne moneyes ; and where the monyes 
 might bee found."§ 
 
 Feb. 3, 1664-5, at Newcastle-on-Tyne, before Sir Francis 
 Liddle, knight, mayor, Mrs. Pepper, midwife, was cited for 
 using charms to remedy the afflicted. One Robert Pyle, pitman, 
 was affected with fits, one of which lasted " the space of one 
 houre and a halfe," and he was " most strangely handled." 
 " And the said Mrs. Pepper did take water and throwed itt upon 
 his face, and touke this informer's child, and another sucking 
 
 * Depositions, fyc.,from York Castle, p. 29. 
 t Ibid., p. 33. 
 j Ibid., p. 84. 
 § Ibid., p. 101. 
 
BOEDER SKETCHES AND FOLKXOEE. 293 
 
 child, and laid them to his mouth. And shee demanding the 
 reason why she did soe, she replyed, that the breath of the 
 children would suck the evill spirritt out of him, for he was 
 possessed with an evill spirritt ; and she said she would prove itt 
 either before mayor or ministers that he was bewitched." 
 Another female witness did see this Mrs. Pepper " call for a 
 bottle of holy water, and tooke the same, and sprinkled itt upon 
 a redd hott spot which was upon the back of his right hand ; and 
 did take a silver crucifix out of her breast, and laid itt upon the 
 said spott. And did then say that shee knew by the said spott 
 what his disease was, and did take the said crucifix and putt itt 
 in his mouth." * 
 
 A still older example of charming by applying living animals 
 to the mouth, in order to re-animate the sinking frame of the 
 patient with fresh life, is recorded as happening at Wooler, on 
 July 23rd, 1604, when the Vicar-General of the Bishop of 
 Durham proceeded against Katherine Thompson and Anne 
 Nevelson of Wooler, " pretended to be common charmers of 
 sick folkes and their goodes, and that they use to bring white 
 ducks or drakes, and to sett the bill thereof to the mouth of the 
 sick person, and mumble upp their charmes in such a strange 
 manner as is damnible and horrible/' f 
 
 The disease called the thrush in the interior of the mouth 
 prevents infants from imbibing their food. Aubrey gives a 
 singular case, akin to the above, which he appears to have had 
 from " an experienced midwife." " Take a living frog, and 
 hold it in a cloth, that it does not go down into the child's 
 mouth, till it is dead ; and then take another frog and do the 
 
 * Depositions, fyc.,from York Castle, p. 127. 
 t Visit. Book, Register Office, Durham; quoted also in Depositions, 
 4c, from York disllc, p. 127, note. 
 
294 THE DENHAM TRACTS. 
 
 same."* This distemper is actually called in North Northum- 
 berland " the frog in the mouth." 
 
 Feb. 16, 1653-4, John Tatterson of Gargreave, Yorkshire, 
 " being disabled in body " and depressed in mind, " troubled with 
 ill spiretts, who would have advised him to worshippt the enemye" 
 has recourse to Ann Greene, a wise woman or mediciner, who 
 cured him, for which he ought to have been grateful, but 
 instead thereof becomes her accuser. " This informant went to 
 the said Ann, tellinge her that hee was perswaded that she 
 could helpe him, beeinge pained in his eare. The which disease 
 shee told him that blacke wool was good for itt,f but he said 
 that that was not the matter. Whereuppon she loosed the 
 garter from her legg, and crossed his left eare 3 times there- 
 with, and gott some heire outt of his necke, without his consent. 
 
 * Aubrey's Miscellanies, p. 144. 
 
 j " For Ulceration of the Bars. Take the seed of the ash, other- 
 wise called the ashen keys, and boil briskly in the water of the sick 
 man ; foment the ear therewith and put some therein on black ioooI. 
 By God's help it will cure it." — The Physicians of Myddvai, p. 327. 
 " For Noise in the Head, preventing Hearing. Take a clove of 
 garlic, prick in three or four places in the middle, dip in honey, and 
 insert in the ear, covering it with some black wool," &c. — Ibid., p. 338. 
 Black wool is an ingredient in the charm, " which was made by the 
 Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and shown to the three brethren, 
 asking them where they went : we go said they to the ount of 
 Olives, to gather herbs to heal wounds and contusions." &c. — 
 Ibid,, p. 455. " New shorn wool, especially that of the neck of a black 
 sheep, is good against wounds in the beginning, stroaks, desgramma- 
 tions, bruises, and broaken bones, being soaked in vinegar, oile or 
 wine, and is used in embrocations.'" — Lovell's Panzoologicomiiwalogia, 
 p. 113, Oxford, 1661. This appears to be from Pliny and Dioscorides, 
 but I do not find in either author mention of the wool of a black sheep. 
 Among the Romans the victims offered to the infernal gods were 
 black. 
 
BOEDEE SKETCHES AND FOLKLOEE. 295 
 
 And he askeinge her what she would doe therewith, she tould 
 him what matter was that to him, she would use it att her 
 pleasure; goe his waye home and care nott. But, goeinge 
 home, hee was more pained than beefore, and returneinge to her 
 he told her to looke to itt or hee would looke to her. "Where 
 uppon she crost his eare three times againe, and promised hee 
 should mend. And, accordingely, hee did, some corruptible 
 matter runinge outt of his eare as itt did amend." 
 
 In her own defence she said, " that she sometimes useth a 
 charme for cureing the heart each (ache), and used itt twice in 
 one night unto John Tatterson of Gargreave, by crosseinge a 
 garter over his eare and sayeinge these words, ' Boate, a God's 
 namef 9 times over. Likewise for paines in the head, she 
 requires their water and a locke of their heire, the which she 
 boyles together, and afterwards throwes them in the fire and 
 burnes them ; and meddles nott with any other diseases." 
 
 Some of the pretensions of those impostors called wisemen 
 are contained in the depositions, Jan. 19, 1673-4, before Robert 
 Roddam, mayor of Newcastle, against Peter Banks, who 
 cunningly took advantage of the popular credulity in a variety 
 of ways, most likely to succeed, as being in consonance with the 
 ideas of that age. Jane, wife of Cuthbert Burrell, shipwright, 
 deposed that he persuaded people that he could let leases to 
 people for a term of years and life, thereby insuring their lives 
 for that period. " Whereupon divers seamen repair to him and 
 putt trust in his conjurations, and pay him 20s. a pcice for 
 such leases." A year and a half previously he tried to impose 
 upon her husband, who was accustomed to take sea voyages, by 
 thrusting one of these fictitious leases into his hands. The wile 
 having discovered the fraud " was mighty angry and much 
 greived." The contents were these: " I charge you and all of 
 you, in the high sword name, to assist and blesse (Aith. Burrell, 
 belonging to — (such a ship) — from all rocks and sands, storms 
 
296 THE DENBAM TRACTS. 
 
 and tempests thereunto belonging, for this yeare." This she 
 indignantly thrust into the fire, on which account Banks 
 " threatened he would plague" her, "that she should never be 
 worth a groat," and he continued to molest her by his " strange 
 stratagems." " The said Peter Banks hath often confessed to 
 her and others that he used inchantments, conjuracions, and 
 magick arts ; and, in perticuler, in conjureing evil and 
 malicious spiritts ; and, espetially, about a young woman that 
 lived in Gateshead, whose name she knows not, who came to 
 him when the informer was present, and discovered about her 
 being molested with a spirit and the like. Whereupon lie 
 looked iu his books, and writt something out of the same into a 
 paper and delivered it to that young woman. And told her 
 that when the spirit appeared lett her open that paper, and she 
 would be noe more molested. And afterwards, as Banks con- 
 fessed, the same woman came back again, and gave him thanks 
 and payment." He " made his cracks and boasts," " that he 
 medicined and conjured an evill spirit that Thomas Newton's 
 daughter was troubled with, and in the night time he burnt 
 peices of paper in the fire written on for that end, and a certaine 
 number in the night, at a certaine time, and used words that he 
 had mastered the spirits. He likewise said that he could com- 
 pell people that had iil husbands to be good to their wifes. And 
 he did nominate one Jane Crossley, to whom he had letten a 
 lease for that end, and had got 10s. and two new shirts for his 
 pains ; and that the same lease endured for a yeare, and, during 
 that time, her husband was loveing and kind ; but the yeare 
 expireing, and she not renewing her lease, her said husband 
 was ill and untoward againe. And he also declared that he 
 could take away a man's life a yeare before his appointed time, 
 or make him live a yeare longer." Ellinor Patteson, alias 
 Phillips, alleged that contention having arisen between her and 
 Banks, " she often in the night time was terrified with visions 
 
BOEDEB SKETCIIES AND FOLKXOEE. 297 
 
 and apparitions; and in such a manner as she thought the said 
 Banks was standing up in flames of fire, and could never be 
 att rest and quietnesse till she made agreement with him." 
 Banks persuaded her that " she was wronged and bewitched 
 and he could cure her. Therefore by his perswasions she per- 
 mitted him to eutt a litle haire out of the back side of her neck 
 in order to medicine and cure her. After which he putt tho 
 haire into a paper, and having sealed it upp, gave it again to 
 the informer, and bidd her burne it. After which she amended 
 and grew better." * 
 
 In an accusation of witchcraft, April 12, 1673, Mark Humble, 
 of Healy, saith " that his mother, Margaret Humble, then lyeing 
 not well, Isabell Thompson tooke some of her haire to medicine 
 her." f 
 
 The Rev. James Raino remarks that the use of the hair of the 
 sick person is derivable from classical antiquity. J 
 
 Thomas Wilson, in his Pitmain Pay, p. 17, has these lines : 
 
 " Aw'vo just been ower wi' somethin' warm, 
 Te try to ease the weary cough, 
 Which baffles byeth the drugs and charm, 
 And threetens oft to tyek him off." 
 
 He adds in a note : " Quackery is not confined to drugs. The 
 ignorant are often imposed upon by what designing knaves call 
 ' charms ; ' and when the former fail recourse is had to the 
 latter." 
 
 Wilson notices another charmer and fortune-teller, who once 
 carried on a great traffic near Brampton, and transmitted the 
 profession to her daughter, who was still more a proficient. 
 
 * Depositions, tj-c, from York Castle, pp. 204, 205. 
 
 f Ibid., p. -Jnl. 
 
 I Ibid., p. (J 1, liotf. 
 
298 THE DENHAH TRACTS. 
 
 Elizabeth or Lizzy Douglas " lived near Brampton, and carried 
 on the craft of fortune-telling, recovering things stolen or 
 strayed, and restoring cattle that laboured under diseases 
 inflicted by witchcraft. She was the oracle of the vicinity for 
 many miles round, and sent many a forlorn maiden away with 
 a light heart; for, after bamboozling and mystifying the 
 inquirer with a variety of questions, so as almost to make her 
 say what she wanted to be told, she delighted her with the 
 initials of the name of the swain of her choice, not forgetting, 
 however, whilst shuffling the cards, to shuffle the money from 
 the girl's pocket into her own. She was once applied to for 
 assistance in the case of some cattle that were ' dwining away ' 
 under the power of witchcraft. She was rather puzzled how to 
 act in this matter ; but, after applying her fertile mind to it for 
 some time, she came to the conclusion that slitting their tails 
 and putting pieces of rowan-tree into the opening would free 
 them from the power that was destroying them. This, of 
 course, was tried ; but the owners of the cattle declared that 
 it had no effect upon the disease, and that they might as well 
 have 'laid salt on their tails.' Lizzy, no doubt, often missed 
 her mark on these occasions ; but she sometimes made a lucky 
 hit, which kept her fame afloat with the dupes that consulted 
 her. She has been dead many years ; but her daughter, it is 
 said, has succeeded to the business, and inherits the rare quali- 
 ties of her far-famed parent." * 
 
 At Wooler, to cure the stye a gold ring is applied nine times 
 to the place affected, also the cat's tail if the eye is rubbed 
 with it. 
 
 A charm there for a new tooth was to wrap the tooth in a 
 
 * The Pitman's Pay and Other Poems, by Thomas Wilson, p. 85, 
 note. 
 
BOEDER SKETCHES AND FOLKLORE. 299 
 
 piece of paper along with some salt and cast it into the fire, 
 saying : 
 
 " Fire, fire, burn byen, 
 Lord, send me my tnith agyen." 
 
 This is customary among children in the south of Scotland, the 
 
 saying being : 
 
 " Fire, fire, burn bane, 
 And send me my tooth again." 
 
 To obtain a clock at a raffle, sit crossed-leg and you will be 
 sure to get it. 
 
 Anne Baites and Others ; for Witchcraft. 
 
 "April 2, 1673. Before Humphrey Mitford, Esq. Ann 
 Armstrong, of Birchen-nooke, spinster, saith, that Ann, wife 
 of Thomas Baites, of Morpeth, tanner, hath beene severall 
 times in the company of the rest of the witches, both att 
 Barwick, Barrasford, and at Ridingbridg-end, and once att 
 the house of Mr. Francis Pye, in Morpeth, in the seller there* 
 The said Ann Baites hath severall times danced with the dived 
 att the places aforesaid, calling him, sometimes, her protector, 
 and, other sometimes, her blessed saviour. He hath seen the 
 said Ann Baites severall times att the places aforesaid rideing 
 upon wooden dishes and egg-shells, both in the rideinge house 
 and in the close adjoyninge. She further saith that the said 
 Ann hath been severall times in the shape of a catt and a hare, 
 and in the shape of a greyhound and a bee, letting the divcll 
 see how many shapes she could turn herself into. 
 
 " April 4. Before Sir Richard Stote. The same witness 
 saith, that since she gave information against severall persons 
 who ridd her to severall places where they had conversation 
 with the divell, she hath] beene severall times lately ridden by 
 Anne Driden and Anne Forster, and was last night ridden by 
 them to the rideing house in the close on the common, where 
 
300 THE DENHAM TEACTS. 
 
 the said Anne Forster, Anne Driden, Lucy Thompson, John 
 Crauforth, Wm. Wright, Elizabeth Pickering, Anne Usher, 
 Michaell Aynesley, and Margaret his wife, and one Margarett, 
 whose surname she knowes not, but she said to the protector 
 she came from Corbridge, and thre more, whose names she 
 knowes not, were all present with their protector, and had all 
 sorts of meates and drinkes they named, siltt * upon the table 
 by pulling a rope, and they tooke the bridle of this informant, 
 and made her singe to them whilst they danced ; and all of 
 them who had donne harme gave an account thereof to their pro- 
 tector, who made most of them that did most harme, and beate 
 those who had donne no harme. And Mary Hunter said she had 
 killed George Taylor's filly, and had power over his mare, and , 
 that she had power of the farre hinder leg of Johne Marche. 
 
 " Feb. 5, 1 672-3. Newcastle-on-Tyne, before Ealph Jenison. 
 Anne Armstrong, of Birks-nooke, saith, that, being servant to 
 one Ma'ble Fouler of Burtree House, in August last, her dame 
 sent her to seeke eggs of one Anne Foster, of Stocksfield ; but 
 as they could not agree for the price, the said Anne desired 
 her to sitt downe and looke her head, which ' accordingly ' she 
 did. And then the said Anne lookt this informant's head. 
 And, when they had done, she went home. And, about three 
 days after, seekeing the cowes in the pasture, a little after day- 
 breake, she mett, as she thought, an old man with ragg'd 
 cloaths, who askt this informant where she was on the Friday 
 last. She tould him she was seekeing eggs at Stocksfield. So he 
 tould her that the same woman that lookt her head should be 
 the first that made a horse of her spin-it, and who should be 
 the next that would ride her ; and into what shape and like- 
 nesses she should be changed, if she would turne to there God. 
 
 * Sile, Northumbrian, is to percolate, to flow ; also, to strain, to 
 purify milk through a straining dish.— Brockett's North Country 
 Words. 
 
BORDER SKETCHES AND FOLKLORE. 301 
 
 And with all tould this informer how they would use all meanes 
 they could to allure her : first, by there tricks, by rideing in the 
 house in empty wood dishes that had never beene wett, and 
 also in egg shells, and how to obtaine whatever they desired bv 
 swinging in a rope ; and with severall dishes of meate and 
 drinke. But, if she eate not of their meate, they could not 
 harme her. And, at last, tould her how it should be divulged by 
 eateing a piece of cheese, which should be laid by her when 
 she laie downe in a field, with her apron cast over her head, 
 and so left her. But after he was gone she fell suddainely 
 downe dead and continued dead till towards six that morneing. 
 And, when she arose, went home, but kept all these things secrett. 
 And since that time, for the most parte every day, and some- 
 times two or three times in the day, she has taken of these fitts, 
 and continued as dead often from evening till cockcrow. And 
 whilst she was lying in that condition, which happened one 
 night a little before Christmas, about the change of the moone, 
 this informant see the said Anne Forster come with a bridle, 
 and bridled her and ridd upon her crosse-legged, till they 
 came to (the) rest of her companions at Rideing Millne bridg- 
 end, where they usually mett. And when she light of her 
 back, pull'd the bridle of this informer's head, now in the like- 
 nesse of a horse ; but, when the bridle was taken of, she stood 
 up in her own shape, and then she see the said Anne Forster, 
 Anne Dryden, of Prudhoe, and Luce Thompson, of Mickley, 
 and tenne more unknowno to her, a long black man rideing on 
 a bay galloway, as she thought, which they called there pro- 
 tector. And when they had bankt theire horses, they stood all 
 upon a bare spott of ground, and bad this informer sing whilst 
 they danced in severall shapes, first of a hare, then in their 
 owne, and then in a catt, sometimes in a mouse, and in severall 
 other shapes. And when they had done, bridled this informer, 
 and the rest of the horses, and rid home with their protector 
 
302 THE DENHAM TRACTS. 
 
 first. And for six or seaven nights together they did the same. 
 And the last night this informer was with them they mett all 
 at a house called the Rideing house, where she saw Forster, 
 Dryden, and Thompson, and the rest, and theire protector, 
 which they call'd their god, sitting at the head of the table in 
 a gold chaire, as she thought ; and a rope hanging over the 
 roome, which every one touch'd three several times, and what- 
 ever was desired was sett upon the table, of several kindes of 
 meate and drinke ; and when they had eaten, she that was last 
 drew the table, and kept the reversions. This was their custome 
 which they usually did. But when this informer used nieanes 
 to avoyd theire company they came in their owne shapes, and 
 threatned her, if she would not turne to theire god, the last 
 shift should be the worst. And from that time they have not 
 troubled her. But further saith that, on St. John day last, 
 being in the field, seeking sheep, she sitt downe, being weary, 
 and cast her apron over her head. And when she got upp she 
 found a piece cheese lying at her head ; which she tooke up and 
 brought home, and did eate of it, and since that time hath dis- 
 closed all which she formerly kept secrett. 
 
 " Apr. 9, 1 673. At the Sessions at Morpeth, before Sir 
 Thomas Horsley and Sir Richard Stote, knights, James Howard, 
 Humphrey Mitford, Ralph Jenison, and John Salkeld, Esqrs. 
 
 " Anne Armstrong, of Birks-nuke, spinster, saith, that the 
 information she hath already given is truth. She now further 
 saith that Lucy Thompson, of Mickley, widdow, upon Thursday 
 in the evening, being the 3rd of Aprill, att the house of John 
 Newton off the Riding, swinging upon a rope which went 
 crosse the balkes, she, the said Lucy, wished that a boyl'd capon 
 with silver scrues might come down to her and the rest, which 
 were five coveys consisting of thirteen person in every covey ; 
 and that the said Lucy did swing twice, and then the said capon 
 with silver scrues did, as she thinketh, come downe, which 
 
BORDER SKETCHES AND FOLKLORE. 303 
 
 capon the said Lucy sett before the rest of the company, whereof 
 the divell, which they called their protector, and sometimes their 
 blessed saviour, was their cheif, sitting in a chair like unto 
 bright gold. And the said Lucy further did swing, and 
 demanded the plum-broth which the capon was boyled in, and 
 thereupon it did immediately come down in a dish, and likewise 
 a botle of wine which came down upon the first swing. 
 
 " She further 6aith that Ann, the wife of Richard Forster off 
 Stocksfeild, did swing upon the rope, and, upon the first swing, 
 she gott a cheese, and upon the second she got a beakment * 
 of wheat flower, and upon the third swing she gott about halfe a 
 quarter of butter to knead the said flower withall, they haveing 
 noe power to gett water. 
 
 " She further saith that Margret, the wife of Michaell Aynsley 
 of Hiding did swing, and she gott a flackett t of ale containing, 
 as she thought, about three quarts, a kening % of wheat flowers 
 for pyes, and a peice of beife. 
 
 " She further saith that every person had their swings in the 
 said rope, and did gett several dishes of provision upon their 
 severall swings according as they did desire ; which this in- 
 formant cannot repeat or remember, there beinge soe many 
 persons and such variety of meat ; and those that come last att 
 the said meeting did carry away the remainder of the meat. 
 
 " And she further saith that she particularly knew at the said 
 meeting one Michael Aynsly of the Rideing, Mary Hunter of 
 Birkenside, widdow, Dorothy Green of Edmondsbyers in the 
 county of Durham, widdow, Anne Usher of Fairlymay, widdow, 
 Eliz. Pickering of Whittingeslaw, widdow, Jane wife of Wm. 
 Makepeace of New Ridley, yeo., Anthony Hunter of Birken- 
 
 * Beatmont, a measure containing about a quarter of a peck, 
 f Flackett, a flask or wood-bottle. 
 J Kening, half a bushel. 
 
304 THE DENHAM TEACTS. 
 
 side, yeo., John Whitfield of Edmondbyers, Anne Whitfield of 
 the same, spinster, Chr. Dixon of Mugleswqrth Park and Alice 
 his wife, Catherine Eliot of Ebchester, Elsabeth Atehinson of 
 Ebchester widdow, and Issabell Andrew of Crooked-oake, 
 widdow, with many others, both in Morpeth and other places, 
 whose faces this informer knowes but eannot tell their names. 
 All which persons had their severall meetings at diverse other 
 places at other times : viz., upon Collup Monday last, being the 
 tenth of February, the said persons met at Allensford, where 
 this informant was ridden upon by an inchanted bridle by 
 Michael Aynsly and Margaret his wife ; which inchanted bridle, 
 when they tooke it of from her head, she stood upp in her owne 
 proper person, and see all the said persons beforemencioned 
 danceing, some in the likenesse of hares, some in the likenesse 
 of catts, others in the likenesse of bees, and some in their owne 
 likenesse, and made this informant sing till they danced, and 
 every thirteen of them had a divell with them in sundry shapes 
 And at the said meeting their particular divell tooke them that 
 did most evill, and danced with them first, and called every of 
 them to an account, and those that did most evill he maid 
 most of. 
 
 " And this informant saith that she can very well remember 
 the particular confessions that the severall persons hereunder 
 named made to the devill then and there, as well as at other 
 times : and first Lucy Thompson of Mickly confessed to the 
 divell that she had wronged Edward Lumiy of Mickly goods by 
 witcheing them; and in particular one horse by pincing to 
 death, and one ox which suddainly dyed in the draught, and the 
 devill incouraged her for it. 
 
 " Ann Drydon of Pruddoe confessed to the devill that, on the 
 Thursday night after Fasten's even last, when they were drink- 
 ing wine in Franck Pye's seller in Morpeth, that shee witched 
 suddenly to death her neighbor's horse in Pruddoe. 
 
BORDER SKETCHES AND FOI.KLOKE. 305 
 
 " Anne wife of Richard Forster of Stoeksficld confessed that 
 sho bewitched Robert Newton's horses of Stocksfield, and that 
 there was one of them that had but one shew on, which she 
 took and presented with the foot and all to the divell at next 
 meeting. And she further confessed to her protector that she 
 had power of a ehilde of the said Robert Newton's called 
 Issabell, ever since she was four yeare olde, and she is now 
 about eight yeares old, and she is now pined to nothing, and 
 continues soo. 
 
 " Moreover Michael Ainsly and Anne Drydon confessed to the 
 divell that they had power of Mr. Thomas Errington's horse, of 
 Kideing mill, and they ridd behinde his man upon the said 
 horse from Newcastle like two bees, and the horse immediately 
 after he came home, dyed ; and this was but about a moneth 
 since. 
 
 " The said Anne Forster, Michaell Ainsly, and Lucy Thompson 
 confessed to the divell, and the said Michaell told the divell 
 that he called 3 severall times at Mr. Errington's kitchen 
 dore, and made a noise like an host of men. And that night, 
 tho divell asking them how they sped, they answered nothing, 
 for they had not got power of tho miller, but they got the shirt 
 of his bak, as he was lyeing betwixt women, and laid it under 
 his head and stroke him dead another time, in revenge he was 
 an instrument to save Raiph Elrington's draught from goeing 
 downo the water and drowneing, as they intended to have done. 
 And that they confessed to tho divell that they made all tho goer 
 goo of tho mill, and that they intended to have made the stones 
 all grindo till thoy had flowne all in peeces. 
 
 " Mary Hunter confessed to the divill that she had wronged 
 George Tayler of Edgebrigg's goods, and told her protector that 
 sho had gotten the power of a fole of his soe that it pined away 
 to death. And she had gott power of the dam of the said fole, 
 and that thoy had an intention, the last Thursday at night, to 
 
 vol. n. x 
 
306 THE DENHAM TRACTS. 
 
 have taken away the power of the limbs of the said mare. About 
 Michaelmas last she did come to one John Marsh, of Edgebrigg, 
 when he and his wife was rideing from Bywell, and flew some- 
 times under his mare's belly and sometimes before its breast, in 
 the likenesse of a swallow, untill she got the power of it, and it 
 dyed within a week after. And she and Dorothy Green con- 
 fessed to the divill that they got power of the said John Marshe's 
 oxo's far hinder legg. And this is all within the space of a year 
 halfe or thereabouts. 
 
 "Ann Usher, of Fairly May, confessed to the divell that by his 
 help she was a medciner, and that she had within a little space 
 done £100 hurt to one George Stobbart, of New Ridlv, in his 
 goods. And that she and Jane Makepeace, of New Ridly, had 
 trailed a horse of the said Geo. doune a great scarr, and that 
 they have now power of a greye of the said Geo., which now 
 pines away. 
 
 " Elizabeth Pickering, of Whittingstall, widdow, confessed, 
 that she had power of a neighbor's beasts of her owne in 
 Whittingstall, and that she had killed a child of the said 
 neighbor's. 
 
 "And this informer saith that all the said persons were 
 frequently at the meetings and rideings with the divill, and 
 craved his assistance, and consulted with him about all the 
 aforesaid accions. 
 
 "She further saith that Jane Hopper of the Hill confessed to 
 the divill that she had power over Wm. Swinburne, of New- 
 feild, for near the space of two yeares last past, by which is 
 sore pined, and she hopes to have his life. And Anthony 
 Hunter, of Birkenside, confessed he had power over Anne, wife 
 of Thomas Richardson, of Crooked Oak ; that he tooke away the 
 power of her limbs, and askt the divill's assistance to take away 
 her life. And Jane Makepeace was at all the meetings among 
 the witches, and helped to destroy the goods of George 
 Stobbart. 
 
BOEDER SKETCHES AND FOLKLORE. 307 
 
 " Anrl this informer deposeth that Ann Drydon had a lease for 
 fifty ycarcs of the divill, wliereof ten ar expired. Ann Forster 
 had a lease of her life for 47 yeares, whereof seaven are yet to 
 come. Lucy Thompson had a lease of two and forty, whereof 
 two are yet to come, and, her lease being near out, they would 
 have persuaded this informer to have taken a lease of thro 
 score yeares or upwards, and that she should never want gold 
 or mony, or, if sho had but one cow, they should let her 
 know a way to get as much milk as them that had tenn. 
 
 " And further this informer cannot as yet well remember." 
 
 " Apr. 21, 1673. The said witness, Anne Armstrong, deposes 
 further before Ralph Jonison, Esq. 
 
 " On Monday last, at night, she, being in her father's house, 
 see one Jane Baites, of Corbridge, come in the forme of a gray 
 catt with a bridle hanging on her foote, and breathed upon her 
 and struck her dead, and bridled her and rid upon her in the 
 name of the devill southward, but the name of the place she 
 docs not now remember. And after the said Jane allighted and 
 pulld tho bridlo of her head, and she and the rest had drawno 
 thoir conipasse nigh to a bridg end, and the devil placed a stone 
 in the middle of the compasse, they sett themselves downo, and 
 bending towards the stone, repeated tho Lord's prayer back- 
 wards. And when they had done the devill, in tho forme of a 
 littlo black man and black cloaths, calld of one Isabell Thomp- 
 son, of Slealy, widdow, by name, and required of her what 
 service she had done him. Sho roplyd she had gott power of 
 the body of one Margarett Teasdalo. And after he had danced 
 with her ho dismissed her, and call'd of one Thomasine, wife of 
 Edward Watson, of Slealy, who confessed to the devill that she 
 had likewise power of tho body of the said Margaret Teasdale, 
 and would keepe power of her till she gott her lifo. 
 
 " At sevcrall of their meetings she has seeno Michall Aynsley 
 and Margaret his wife, now prisoners in his Ma tlca goale, and 
 
 x 2 
 
303 THE DENHAM TEACTS. 
 
 Jane Baites, of Corbridge, ride upon one James Anderson, of 
 Corbridge, chapman, to their meetings, and hankt him to a 
 stobb, whilst they were at their sports, and when they had done, 
 ridd upon him homeward. 
 
 " May 12. She further saith that on the second day of May 
 laste, &t night, the witches carried her to Berwicke bridge end, 
 where she see a greate number of them, and amongste the reste 
 she see one Ann Parteis, of Hollisfeild, and heard her declare 
 to the devill that she did enter into the house of one John 
 Maughan, of the pareshe of Haydon, and found his wife's rocke 
 lyinge upon the table. And she tooke up the rocke to spinne of 
 it, and by spinneinge of the rocke she had gotten the power of 
 the said Anne that she should never spinne more, and would 
 still torment her till she had her life. 
 
 " May 14. She being brought into Allandaile by the parish- 
 iners, for the discovery of witches, Isabell Johnson, being under 
 suspition, was brought before her, and she breathing uppon the 
 said Anne immediately the said Anne did fall downe in a sound 
 and laid three quarters of an houre, and after her recovery she 
 said if there were any witches in England Isabell Johnson was 
 one. 
 
 " At Morpeth Sessions as aforesaid Robert Johnson, of Eydeing 
 Mill, saith that about the latter end of August last, late at night, 
 lyeing in his bed at Rydeing Mill, betwixt two of his fellow- 
 servants, he herd a man, as he thought, call at the dore and ask 
 whoe was within. Upon which this informant rose and went 
 and layd his head against the chamber window to know whoe 
 it was that called, and he heard a great noise of horse feet, as 
 though it had been an army of men. Whereupon he called, but 
 none would answer. Soe he returned to his bed, and the next 
 morneinge, riseing out of his bed, he wanted his shirt, which 
 seeking after he accused his two fellow-servants, which were 
 amazed at the thing and denyed that ever they knew of it, 
 
BOEDER SKETCHES AKD FOLKLORE. 309 
 
 which tliis informant further searching after, found it lapt upp 
 under his pillow at Ids bed head. He further saith, that Mr. 
 Errington's draught, and Ra. Elrington's, being away at 
 Stiford leading tyth corne there, and being late in comeing home, 
 this informer could not rest satisfied, but went to seek the 
 draughts and to know what was become of them, and met them 
 comeing out of Stiford towne end, and came homeward with 
 thorn, till they came to tho water. And Mr. Errington's draught 
 being got through he herd the people with the other draught 
 cry that they were goeing downe the water. And then he got 
 on to a horse and rode downe after them some 3 score yards or 
 thereabouts, where ho came to them just at the entring into a 
 great deep pool, where, if he had not made great help, they 
 might have been lost, both men and beasts. And getting them 
 turned and brought upp to tho other draught they came all 
 home together, and this informant haveing loosed tho beasts out 
 of lu3 maister's draught and goeing to bed, was that night sud- 
 dainly strucken dead in tlio kitchen to the sight of his fellow- 
 servant. Ho further saith that, about some sixteen dayes before 
 Christmas last, he could not by any means ho could use gett tho 
 mill sett, and about the hinder end of Christmas hollidayes, 
 being sheeling somo oatcs about two hours before the sunn- 
 sotting, all the gecr, viz 1 , hopper and hoops, and all other things 
 but the stones, flew down and were casten of, and he himselfo 
 almost killed with them, they comeing against him with such 
 force and violence. 
 
 " He further saith that, about a moneth since, one Win. 
 Olliver, his fellow-servant, went to Newcastle in the morneing 
 and rodo upon a gray gelding of his master's, which, to all 
 their sights, was as well and as good like as any horse could 
 beo. And his fellow-servant sayed that he came as well homo 
 and rode as heartily ass any horse could doo. Ana after he is 
 cuino home this informant went to (he dure ami tiH.ki: tho hoi><; 
 
310 THE DENHAM TRACTS. 
 
 by the bridle and led him into the stable where he usualley 
 stood. And there haveing him in his hand by the bridle reen, 
 and haveing not gott him fastened nor out of his hand, till 
 suddainly the horse rushed downe, he being not hott at all with 
 rideing ; and soe continued a good while, sometimes lookeing 
 very cheerily about him, and other sometimes striveing, as it 
 were for life and death, soe that this informer was forced to 
 goe to bed and leave him, and in the morneing when he came to 
 the stable again he found him lyeing dead, and takeing him out 
 of the stable they rippt him upp to see what might be the cause, 
 and could finde nothing, but that the horse was all right enough 
 in his body. 
 
 "John March, of Edgebrigg, yeoman, saith, that, about a month 
 since, he went to a place called Birkside nook, and there Ann 
 Armstrong heareing him named began to speak to him and asltt 
 him if he had not an ox that had the power of one of his limbs 
 taken from him. And he telling her he had, and inquireing 
 how she came to know, she told him that she heard Mary 
 Hunter, of Birkside, and another, at a meeting amongst diverse 
 witches, confesse to the divell that they had taken the power of 
 that beast ; and she not knowing her name Sir James Claverjng 
 and Sir Richard Stote thought proper to carry her to Eden- 
 byers, and there to cause the woman to come to her ther, to 
 the intent she might challenge her. And she challenged one 
 Dorothy Green, a wicldow, and she said she was the person 
 that joyned with Mary Hunter in the bewithcheing of the said 
 ox. And the ox now continues lame and has noe use of his farr 
 hinder legg, but pines away, and likely to dye. He saith that 
 Ann Armstrong told him that the said persons confessed before 
 the devill that they bewitched a gray mare of his, and he saith 
 that about a fortnight before Michaelmas last, he and his wife 
 were rideing homo from Bywell on a Sunday at night upon the 
 same mare, about sun-sett ; and there came a swallow, which 
 
BOEDER SKETCHES AND FOLKLORE. 31 1 
 
 above forty times and more flew through under the mare's belly, 
 and crossed her way before her brest. And this informant 
 slrook at it with his rod above twenty times and could by no 
 ineancs hinder it, untill of its owne accord it went away. And 
 the mare went very well home, and within four dayes dyed ; 
 and, before she dead, was two dayes soe mad that she was past 
 holding, and was strucke bliude for four-and-twenty houres 
 before she dead. 
 
 " He further saith, that the said Mary Hunter came downc to 
 his house on Monday last, where lie had Anil Armstrong, and 
 she askt her what she had to say to her. And she told her that 
 she was a witch, and that she had seen her at the devil Pa 
 meetinges. The other askt her where, and she answered, " In 
 this same house, last night, being Sunday, amongst all the 
 companye." And the said informer saith, that that very night 
 when she said they mett, he was was soe sore affrighted that 
 ho was in a manner dead ; and afterward comeing to himselfe 
 againo he herd a great thundering and saw a great lighteningc 
 in the house, and to the number of twenty creatures in the 
 resemblances of catts, and other shapes, lyeing on the floores 
 and creeping upon the walls. And immediately after I herd 
 the girll singing to them. And his servants, being in bed with 
 the young woman, awakened, and came downe out of the roomc 
 where the girll lay and said, " Alas ! the witches were gone 
 with the girll." And he went upp and found her body lyeing 
 in the bed, as she were dead, neither breath nor life being 
 discerned in her ; and continued soe for the most part of an 
 hour till he fetched in two or three of his neighbors to see her 
 in that condition. And presently after they came in she began 
 to stir and open her eyes and lokod on them for about an hour 
 before she spake anything. And when she spoke she said that 
 all the companyes wore there, and were endeavouringe to get 
 her away, but wero prevented. And further ho saith, the said 
 
312 THE DE'JHAM TRACTS. 
 
 Ann Armstrong enquired of the said Mary Hunter for her sonn 
 Anton, and there being one of her sons called Cuthbert, wee 
 told her that he was the man she askt for, which she denyed, 
 and said that it was not the man, for she knew him very well 
 and had seen him severall tymes at their meetings; and desired 
 her to send him downe, and a lass that she, the said Mary, 
 severall times ride upon and singe unto them, and she would 
 resolve her whether it were they or not. Thereupon Anton 
 afterwards came downe and questioned her what she had to say 
 to him. She said she would lett him know at the sessions, 
 hearing he was to be there ; and because he had threatened her 
 she would say noe more, but told this informer, after he was 
 gone, that Anton had confessed before the devill lie had taken 
 the power of Anne, wife of Tho. Eichardson of Crooked Oaks' 
 limbs from her, and had likewise bewitched several cattle to 
 death. And further saith, that he knowes that the said Ann 
 Richardson is in a very bad condicion, being sometimes able to 
 goe, and other times that she cannot goe without help. He 
 never see the said Ann in his life before, neither, to his know- 
 ledge, was she ever where he was, ribr never sawe none of his 
 beasts, but told him all this when he went to see her. 
 
 " Geo. Tayler, of Edgebridge, yeoman, saith, that coming to 
 Birkside nook to speak with'one Ann Armstrong, whoe had 
 oftentimes formerly desired to have seen him, and she being 
 asleep upon a bed, her sister awakened her and raised her, and 
 being asked if she knew him or could name him, she answered 
 that if he were the man that had a fole lately dead, and if he 
 lived at Edgebrigg, his name was Geo. Tayler. Upon his 
 demanding on her how she came to know it, she told him that 
 she herd Mary Hunter of Brkenside, widdow, confesse it before 
 tho divell at meetingo they had that she had gotten the power 
 and tho life of his folo. Tho said fole began not to be well 
 ahuut Michueliuas last, and dyed about a nioneih since, and it 
 
BOEDEE SKETCHES AND FOLKLORE. 31o 
 
 had noc natural! disease to his knowledge, but often swelled in 
 sevcrall parts of the body of it; and its head and lipps would 
 have been sore swelld, and letten him have endeavoured never 
 soo often to blood it, thinking thereby to prevent its death, ho 
 could never get any in noe part of the body of it. And when it 
 was dead, he opened it to see if there w r ere any blood or not, 
 and lie saith that ho thinks, very, a quart pott would have holden 
 all that it had and more, and that litle that it had was all drawnc 
 about the heart thereof. 
 
 " He saith that Ann Armestronj; told him that she heard when 
 the said Mary Hunter and Dorothy Green, of Edmondbyers, 
 eonfesse to the devill that they had the power of his oxen and 
 kyne, horses and mares, and that now, at this present, he has 
 a grey mare, the dam of the said fole, pineing away, and in 
 the same condition that tho folo was in. And he thinks that all 
 his goods doo not thrive, nor are like his neighbours goods, 
 notwithstanding he feeds them as well as he can, but are like 
 anatomycs. 
 
 " Apr. 21, 1673. Marke Humble, of Slealy, tayler, saith, 
 that ho, betwixt 7 and 8 yeares agoc, walking towards tho 
 high ond of Slealy, mett one Isabell Thompson walking down- 
 ward. And when she was gone past him, she being formerly 
 suspected of witchcraft, he lookt back over his shoulder and did 
 sco tho said Isablo hould up her hands towards his back. And 
 when he came home he grew very sick, and tould the people in 
 the house that ho was afraid Isabell Thompson had done him 
 wrong. And for some 3 or 4 yeares continued very ill by 
 fitts in a most violent manner, to tho sight and admiration of 
 nil his neighbours. And whilst he continued in this distemper, 
 the s:iid Isabell enmo to his house and said it was reported she 
 had bewitched him. She tould him if it were so it would 
 soono be kiiownc. And further saith, that his mother Margaret 
 Humble then lvcing not well, Isabell Thompson tooke noun: of 
 
314 THE DENHAM TKACTS. 
 
 her haire to medicine her." Depositions, fyc, from York Castle, 
 pp. 191—201. 
 
 All the accused persons denied their guilt, but the result of 
 the affair is not known. 
 
 Two volumes issued by the Surtees Society, Depositions 
 and other Ecclesiastical Proceedings from the Courts of Durham, 
 extending from 1311 to the. Reign of Elizabeth "(1845), and 
 Depositions from the Castle of York, relating to Offences com- 
 mitted in the Northern Counties in the Seventeenth Century (1861), 
 contain a large assemblage of witchcraft cases from the Northern 
 English Counties, to which only a limited reference can be made, 
 for the more salient features. The first case on record is that 
 of Margaret Lyndyssay along with another woman, in the parish 
 of Bdlyngeham, Northumberland, who — 1 Feb. 1435 — cleared 
 herself of the imputation of being an enchantress, whereof she 
 had been blamed by John de Longcaster, John Somerson, and 
 John Symson.* 16 Feb. 1447-8, Mariot Jacson, accused of 
 the same crime, was, on the favourable testimony of her neigh- 
 bours, restored to her pristine good credit | About 1569 one 
 Margaret Reed, apparently of Newcastle, had been misrepre- 
 sented as being a "water wych."f 17th May, 1572, at 
 Stockton, two foolish women revile each other, and one of them, 
 Elizabeth Anderson, called her neighbour, Annie Barden, 
 " crowket haudyd wytch," the accusation being aggravated by 
 the words being shouted out " audiently," where " might 
 many have herd them, beinge spoken so neigh the crosse and 
 in the toune gait as they were. JJ § 18 Jan. 1574, Margaret 
 Shafto, of Throkele}'-, Northd., bears testimony that. Janet 
 Wilkinson did call Katherine Anderson " hange lipped witche;" 
 and another witness from the same place " did heare the said 
 
 * Depositions, p. 27. f P. 20. 
 
 t P. 91- § P. 247. 
 
BOEDEE SKETCHES AND FOLKXOEE. 315 
 
 Janet Wilkinson call Katheryne Anderson ' darted witche,' 
 and that ' sho had comen of Hedden-on-the-Wall for his good 
 deedes doinge.' * 15 July, 1586, a case of chicling deposed on, 
 which took place at Blaidon, parish of Ryton, between Arthur 
 Bell and John Robson, wherein the cause of offence was that 
 Robson said to Bell, " Thou haist a witch to thy eld-mother, 
 and why cannot the young theef learne at the old ? " this " eld- 
 mother " being Isabell Chamber, Bell's wife's mother.t 
 
 These instances of defamation give place in the succeeding 
 contury to full-framed articles of accusation. December 31, 
 1646, Elizabeth Crossley and others, of Hep ten Hall, in York- 
 shire, are accused of maliciously, on being refused alms, causing 
 young children to take convulsions, whereof they died, a stroke 
 with a candlestick to draw blood from the reputed witch having 
 proved ineffectual, although temporarily affording relief, to 
 counteract Crossley's influence. Her confederate, Mary 
 Midgeley, being denied an almes of wool, and obtaining instead 
 theroof an alms of milk, from Martha the wife of liichard 
 Wood, of Hepten Hall, " shee departed very angry." The 
 consequence was that the clay after six of the milch kine fell 
 sick. Upon this Mrs. Wood hied away to the woman, and 
 confessed her fault in slighting her, " and desired her to 
 remedio it if she could. Longe it was before shee would take 
 too that shee had done it, but at last tooke six pence of her, and 
 wished her to goe homo, for the kyno should mende, and desired 
 her to take for every cow a handfull of salte and an old sickle, 
 and lay undernoath them, and, if they amended not, then to 
 como to her againe." Mary Midgeley confessed that Martha 
 Wood came to her to " asko her advise touchingc one of her 
 kync whose mylke earned in tho gallin ; " whereupon she told 
 her that sho had " learned of ono Issabel Robinson who had 
 
 • P. 813. t P- 3 >8. 
 
316 THE DENHAM TRACTS. 
 
 good skill (if anythinge were gone), and shee wished her to 
 take a litle salte and old yron, lay it under the cow, and pray 
 to God for mend." The others denied the charges, and pro- 
 bably nothing came of it* March 18, 1648-9, a girl, daughter 
 of Dorothy Rodes of Boiling, is frightened into convulsions by 
 conceiving that she is haunted by one Mary Sykes, who had an 
 evil repute, as well as by the likeness two other women, one of 
 whom had been dead two years previously. Richard Booth, of 
 Boiling, had often heard Mary Sykes say to him, " Bless the," 
 and " I'le crosse the," and " had much loss by the death of 
 his goods." To Henry Cordingley, of Tonge, Mary Sikes had 
 said " since Christenmus was twelve monthes, that he had 
 nyne or tenn beasts and horses, but she ' wold make them 
 fewer,' and 'Bless the,' but Tie cross the.' He further saith 
 that, some three dayes before the saide Cristenmas, he goeing 
 to fotlier horses, about 12 o'clock in the night, with a candle 
 and lanthorn, his beasts standing neare his horses, he sawe the 
 said Mary Sikes riding upon the backe of one of his cowes. 
 And he, endeavouring to strike att her, stumbled, and soe the 
 saide Mary flewo out of his mistall windowe, haveing three or 
 fower wooden stanchions, the saide cowe being then white over 
 with an imy sweate. And he likewise saith that he had one 
 blacke horse, worth 4£ 16s., begun n to be sickc about Tewsday 
 was a fortnight, and contincwed dithering and quakeing till 
 Sonday following, and then dj-ed. And he, opening the saide 
 horse, could not finde an eggshell full of blood. And he is 
 verily porswaded that the saide horse was bewitched. And he 
 saith, allsoe, that a blacke mcnre of his hath beene sicke in like 
 manner as the former horse was, since about Tewsday last was 
 a fortnight, till the tymo that the saide Mary was searched by 
 the wcomon ; but, since that, she hath recovered and amended, 
 
 '"* ]>i'i>i:*iliuH$, <Jt , j'ivih Turk Citslh , pp. G-0, 
 
BOIiDEE SKETCHES AND FOI.KLOKE. 317 
 
 and eatos her meate verie well." Five women sworn as 
 searchers did indeed find " upon her left side neare her arme 
 a litle lumpe like a wart, and being pulled out it streteht 
 about lialfo an inch. And they further say that tbey never 
 sawo the like upon anie other weomen." The jury were 
 incredulous, and Mary Sykes was acquitted.* 
 
 10 Jan., 1650-1, Margaret Morton, of Kirkethorpe, was 
 accused at Wakefield of giving a little boy of about four years 
 old, " then in good health and likeing, a peeee of bread," after 
 which the child " begann to bee sicke, and his body swolled very 
 much, and his flesh did daly after much waste, till he could 
 neither goe nor stand." The mother mistrusting Morton sent 
 for her, and she submitted to ask the child forgiveness three 
 times, " and then this informant drew bloud of her with a pin, 
 and immediately after the child amended." In addition to this 
 the informant " at clivers times " " could not get butter when she 
 chimed nor cheese whon she earned." Four women searched 
 Morton and found two black spots, one whereof " was black on 
 both sides, an inch broad, and blew in the middest." Besides 
 being long suspected for a witch, her mother and sister, who 
 were then both dead, " were suspected to be the like." She was 
 tried at the assizes and acquitted. In September, 1650, a woman 
 callod Ann Hudson, of Skipsey, in Holderness, was charged 
 with witchcraft. The sick person had recovered after he had 
 scratched her and drawn blood, f 
 
 Jan. 23, 1651-2, Hester France, in the West Riding of York- 
 shire, " a reputed witch for above twenty years," cured a 
 servant girl, " and prayed to God that she shold never bake 
 again," whereupon she is seized with catalepsy. The reputed 
 witch is prevailed on to visit her and submits to be scratched, 
 and the symptoms are considerably abated. Another person 
 
 • Ibid., pp. 28-30. f Ibid., p. 38 and note. 
 
318 THE DENHAM TRACTS. 
 
 idling for half a year, sends for her — patient woman as she 
 W as — " and she being come into the chamber he scratclit her 
 very sore, and sayde, ' I think thou art the woman that hath 
 done me this wrong,' and then she answred and sayde that she 
 never did hurt in her life."* 
 
 March 17, 1652-3. One Elizabeth Lambe is accused by several 
 sick people of doing them harm, and like the poor woman in 
 the preceding instance she has to submit to various indigni- 
 ties for being so notorious. She frightened John Jonson, of 
 Reednes, by appearing to him at night, accompanied by an old 
 man in brown clothes, whereupon " his goods fell sick, and the 
 farrier could not tell what disease they were ill of." When 
 others of his neighbours had received loss " in their goods, 
 which they did conceive this Eliz. Lambe to be the author 
 of, they also did beat her, and was never afterwards dis- 
 quieted by her." The constable had a child sick, whereupon 
 " his wife meeting the said Eliz. at her owne doore, she did fall 
 downe on her knees and asked her forgiveness, and the child 
 did soone after recover." Nicholas Baldwin, of Rednes, declared 
 that about the year 1648 she drowned him "fhre younge foles 
 ever as they were foled, by witchcraft," whereat Baldwin, 
 enraged beyond measure, did beat her with his cane, and he 
 declared in his evidence, "had it not bene for my wife, because 
 she sat doune of hir knesse and aske me forgivenes, I had bet 
 her worse." She also cruelly handled one Richard Browne at 
 the heart in his sickness by drawing "his heart's blood from 
 him." The sick man thought he would get better if he could 
 draw blood from her, who had so drained him of life's stream, 
 and she being brought to him by a wile, Browne said to her, 
 " Bes, thou hast wronged me. Why dost thou soe ? If thou 
 wilt doe soe no more I will forgive thee." And she answered 
 
 Ibid., pp. 51, 52. 
 
BOEDER SKETCHES AND FOLKLORE. 319 
 
 nothing. Ho then scratched her till the blood came, but within 
 n week after he died."* 
 
 The case of Elizabeth Roberts, Oct. 14, 1654, may be given 
 entire. " John Greencliffe, of Beverley, sayth, that on Saturday 
 last, about seaven in the evening, Elizabeth Roberts [who was 
 the wifo of a joiner at Beverley, and denied any knowledge of 
 what was charged against her] did appeare to him in her usuall 
 wearing clothes, with a ruff about her neck, and, presently 
 vanishing, turned herself into the similitude of a catt, which 
 fixed close about his leg, and, after much strugling, vanished ; 
 whereupon ho was much pained at his heart. Upon Wednesday 
 there seized a catt upon his body, which did strike him on the 
 head, upon which he fell into a swound or traunce. After he 
 received the blow, ho saw the said Elizabeth escape upon a wall 
 in her usuall wearing apparell. Upon Thursday she appeared 
 unto him in the likenesso of a bee, which did very much afflict 
 him, to witt, in throwing of his body from place to place, not- 
 withstanding thcro wero five or six persons to hold him doune." f 
 The bee was in his bonnet, no doubt of it. Another cat case is 
 reported of date at Newcastle, Nov. 10, 1 GG3, before Sir James 
 Clavoring, Bart., mayor, wherein Jane, wife of Wm. Milburne, 
 of Newcastle, imagined that " Fryday gone a seaven night, 
 about 8 o'clock att night, she being alone and in chamber, 
 thero appeared to her something in the perfect similitude and 
 shape of a catt. And the said catt did leape at her face, and 
 did vocally speake with a very audible voyce, and saidc, that itt 
 had gotten the life of one in this house, and camo for this 
 informer life, and would have itt before Saturdny night. To 
 which she replyod, ' I defye the, the devill and all his works.' 
 Upon which the catt did vanish. The second time the cat 
 appeared, " the said catt did violently leape aboute her neck and 
 
 • Ibid., p. f>8. t Ibid, p. 67. 
 
320 THE DENHAH TRACTS. 
 
 shoulders, and was soe ponderous that she was not able to sup- 
 port itt, but did bring her doune to the ground," and kept hc-r 
 there for a quarter of an hour. On the third occasion it 
 attempted to pull her out of bed, if her husband had not held 
 her fast. This cat she believed was Dorothy Stranger, the wife, 
 of a cooper, who had threatened her, "and non else. And she 
 haveinge a desire to see her did this morneing send for the said 
 Dorothy, butt she was very loth to come, and comeing to her 
 she gott blood of her, at the said Stranger's desire, and since 
 hath been pritye well." The dress of the witch of the period is 
 preserved for us by this witness. The cat was not a black but 
 a grey one. " And itt did transforme ittselfe into the shape of 
 the said Dorothy Stranger, in the habit and clothes she wearcs 
 dayly, haveing an old black hatt upon her head, a greene waist- 
 coate, and a brounish coloured petticoate."* Another woman, 
 at Newcastle, Jane Watson, a mediciner and reputed witch, 
 wore, in 1661, "a red waistcoate and greene petticoate." f A 
 third, named Isabell Atcheson, wore a "green waistcoate." J 
 Dress was not one of the items in which witches differed from 
 other people. 
 
 Jan. 11, 1654-5. Katherine Earle was accused of having 
 struck Henry Hatefield, of Rhodes, parish of Rodwell, gent., 
 upon the neck " with a docken stalke, or such like thing, and 
 his maire upon the necke also, whereupon his maire imediately 
 fell sicke and he himselfe was very sore troubled and perplexed 
 with a paine in his necke." She had also clapt one Mr. Franke, 
 late of Rhodes, between the shoulders with her hand, and said, 
 "You are a pretty gentlemen ; will you kisse me? Where- 
 upon the said Mr. Franko fell sicke before he gott home, and 
 never went out of doors after, but dyed, and complained much 
 against the said Katherine on his death-bed." § Katherine 
 
 • Ibid., pp. 112,114. f Ibid., p. 93. 
 
 % Ibid., p. 125. § Ibid., -p. 69. 
 
BOlIDEl! SKETCHES AND POLKLOKE. 321 
 
 having been searched, a mark was found upon her "in the 
 likenesse of a rapp." 
 
 In the case of Jennet and George Benton, June 7, 1G56, at a 
 farm called Bunny Hall, near Wakefield, Richard Jackson, the 
 occupant, besides grievous torment as if he were " drawne in 
 peices at the hart, backe and shoulders," hears singular noises 
 "like ringing of small bells, with singinge and dancinge," 
 accompanied with groans. At last he, his wife and servant, 
 heard three heavy groans, and " at that instant doggs did howlo 
 and yell at the windows, as though they would have puld them 
 in peeces. He had also a great many swine which broako 
 Ihorrow two barn dores. Also the dores in the howse at that 
 time clapt to and fro ; the boxes and trunkes, as they conceived, 
 was removed; and severall aparitions like black doggs and catts 
 was seene in the house. And he saith that, since the time the 
 said Jennet and George Benton threatned him, he hath lost 18 
 horses and meares." * 
 
 In such cases complaints were common of the heart being 
 racked with pains. Frances Mason, daughter of a soldier at 
 Tynemouth, Feb. 15, 1659-60, having lost the power of her 
 limbs, attributes it to one Elizabeth Simpson, who she said 
 tormented her in bed, " and did punch her heart and pull her 
 in pieces;" whereupon the father drew blood from the accused, 
 and his daughter obtained quiet, but not the use of her limbs.t 
 Stranger (Nov. 10, 1663) " tormented Jane Milburne's body 
 soe intollerably that she could nott rest all the night, and was 
 like to teare her very heart in pieces." J May 17, 1673, 
 Dorothy Himers of Morpeth accuses Margaret Milburne, of 
 causing her to take fits in which she apprehended she saw the 
 said Margaret; and in one of these she " did apprehend that 
 alio did seo the said Margaret Milbourne, widdow, standing on 
 nn oatescepp att her bed feet, thinkeing she was pulling her 
 
 • Ibid., p. 75. t Ibi(L > P 82 - t Ibi(L > P- 113 - 
 
 VOL. II. y 
 
322 THE DENHAM TEACTS, 
 
 heart with something like a threed."* In one instance, at New- 
 castle, Aug. 8, 1661, the pain at the heart is by the use of a 
 certain ointment, employed to ease a headache, transferred to 
 the witch herself. The witch appears in the night-time at the 
 bedside, and asks him to " wype off that on thy forehead, for 
 it burns me to death." He asked her what it was that burnt 
 her ; she answered " that ointment that is on thy brow," and 
 puft and blew and cryed, " Oh, burnt to the heart."f 
 
 Oct. 10, 1661, Mary Watson, witch and mediciner, transfers 
 a disease to a dog within the house, which " presently dyed/'J 
 
 Aug. 18, 1664, at Newcastle, the complainant, Alice Thomp- 
 son, continually cried out " of one Katherine Currey, alias 
 Potts, that wrongs her, saying, ' Doe you not see her ? doe you 
 not see her, where the witch theafe stands ? ' And she doth 
 continually cry out that she pulls her heart ; she pricks her 
 heart, and is in the roome to carry her away." § 
 
 Cases of vomiting pins, or being pricked with them, occur. 
 July 12, 1656, Elizabeth Mallory, daughter of the Lady 
 Mallory, of Studley Hall, who afterwards became wife of Sir 
 Cuthbert Heron, of Chipchase, Bart., and at his decease re- 
 married Ralph Jenison, of Elswick, Esq., aged 14, accused 
 William and Mary Wade as the cause of her long sickness and 
 fits, declaring she would never recover till the woman had con- 
 fessed she had done her wrong, or was carried before a justice 
 and punished. This young lady made people believe that she 
 " vomited severall strange things, as blottinge paper full of 
 pins and tlired tied about, and likewise a lumpe of towe with 
 pins and thred tied about it, and a peice of wooll and pins in it, 
 and likewise two feathers and a sticke." In another fit she saw 
 two cats, " one blacke and one yellow catte." When they were 
 
 * Ibid., p. 202. f Ibid; P- 89. 
 
 | Ibid., p. 93. § Ibid., p. 124. 
 
BOKDEB SKETCHES AND FOLKLORE. 323 
 
 committed to prison she was freed of her fits. Wade himself 
 rightly divined what was the matter with her, viz. she was 
 " possessed with an evill spirit," * not unlike that which ani- 
 mated Christian Shaw of Bargarran House, who caused the 
 death of seven poor persons by similar accusations. Tho date, 
 however, is later, 1697. f April 1, 1670, it was shown that on 
 the previous day Mary Earneley of Alne, Yorkshire, fell into a 
 very sick fit, in which she continued a long time, " sometimes 
 cryinge out that Wilkinson wyfe prickt her with pins, clappingo 
 her hand upon her thighs, intimatinge that shee pricked her 
 thighes;" and she also ran a spit into her. The old woman, 
 Ann Wilkinson, was also accused of bewitching to their death 
 two sisters of Mary Earneley's, out of the mouth of one of them 
 there being taken, a little before her death, " a black ribbond 
 with a crooked pinne at the end of it." She also cursed people, 
 and prevented butter coming when there was a churning. She 
 was acquitted, t In another Yorkshire case, Aug. 6, 1674, 
 " Timothy Hague of Denby, saith, that he was present when 
 Mary Moore did vomitt a peice of bended wyer and a peice of 
 paper with two crooked pins in it, and hath att severall other 
 tymes seene her vomitt crooked pinns." § 
 
 An accusation of the latest stamp occurs Dec. 11, 1680, 
 before Sir Thomas Loraine, wherein Nicolas Rames informs 
 that Elizabeth Fenwicke, of Longwitton, "being a woman of bad 
 fame for witchcraft severall yeares hearetofore," had threatened 
 to avenge herself for some ill turn he had done her. This sho 
 does by tormenting his sick wife, by riding upon her, and 
 endeavouring to pull her out of the bed on to the floor. More- 
 
 • Ibid., pp. 75-78. 
 
 t Mitcholl nnd Dickie's Philosophy of Witchcraft, pp. 33-116. 
 
 \ Depositions, <$r., pp. 176-7. 
 
 § Ibid., p. 210. 
 
 t2 
 
324 THE DENHAM TRACTS. 
 
 over, in presence of the wife, a black man, thought to be the 
 devil, " by the said Elizabeth Fenwicke danc togeather." Rames 
 goes to the accused to ask her to visit his wife ; and when she 
 came his wife proposed to Fenwicke that she must have blood 
 of her for bewitching her. "The saide Elizabeth answesheard 
 again that if her blood would doe her any good she might have 
 had it long since, and the saide Elizabeth would ha cutt her 
 finger, and the sayde Anne Raines answeared againe, ' I will 
 have it uppon the brow whear other people give it uppon 
 witches;' and the sayde Elizabeth answeareth againe that if her 
 chyldren should get notice of the saide blooding they would goe 
 madde." But she consented to the operation, and the husband 
 appears to have thrice run a great pin into her brow, before she 
 would bleed, '' and she, the sayde Elizabeth, desired him nott to 
 discloase it, and he declared that if no further prejudice was to 
 him or his wife he would not prosecute her." She was 
 acquitted.* 
 
 The most interesting Northumbrian trial of all, that of Anne 
 Baites and others, April 2, 1673, apparently modelled on some 
 of the Scots cases of that period, would require to be given 
 entire, being, as Mr. Baine remarks, " one of the most extra- 
 ordinary that has ever been printed."! 
 
 Witchcraft. 
 
 I did not find many fresh illustrations of the belief in witch- 
 craft in those portions of Northumberland where I endeavoured 
 to hunt them up. 
 
 The last witch in the north was said to have been burnt at 
 Eglingham, a village mid-way between Wooler and Alnwick. 
 I have only tradition for this statement. 
 
 A woman was " scored above the breath " for a witch, some 
 
 * Ibid., p. 247. f Ibid -> PP- 191-201. 
 
BORDER SKETCHES AND FOLKLORE. 325 
 
 goventy or eighty years ago, at St. Ninian's fair, which is held 
 on the 27th of September in a stubble field near Fenton, on the 
 River Till, not far from Floddenfield. One attacked and 
 scored the other for seducing her husband, making a bloody 
 cross on her brow with a pin. 
 
 A little girl at Wooler said one day, " I met , whom 
 
 folks call a witch. But I crookit my thumb at her." Mr. J. 
 G. Fenwick says that in Weardale, in passing a witch, doubling 
 the thumbs under the forefingers was considered a preventive 
 to being bewitched. * 
 
 Those who have the eyebrows met are witches and warlocks. 
 
 Red butterflies are killed, being accounted witches. 
 
 An old man told me that his aunt used to keep a piece of 
 bour tree, or elder, constantly in her kist (chest) to prevent her 
 clothes from malign influence. 
 
 A stone with a natural hole in it was suspended from the 
 bed-post to prevent sweating at night. It was called a " self- 
 bore." 
 
 A similar stone hung on a nail on which the key is placed is 
 called a witch's stone. 
 
 Moreover, a stone with a hole in it tied to the tester of the 
 bed prevents nightmare from man and beast. f 
 
 A friend writes from near Newcastle in 1845 : " Stones with 
 holes in them I have frequently seen hung up behind the doors 
 of dwelling-houses to keep out evil spirits." 
 
 Witch stones, so far as I have examined them, consist of old 
 whorl-stones, of loom-weights, of any holed stone picked up in 
 
 * Folklore tteronl, ii. p. -'0"). 
 
 \ Sue Aubrey's Mixvcllanii's, p. 147. To prevent the hug riding 
 horses at night, it may be either a fliut with a hole in it hung by 
 tho manger, or a flint without a hole will do if suspended from their 
 necks. 
 
326 THE DENHAM TRACTS. 
 
 the fields; and even of the upper stone of querns or hand- 
 mills. 
 
 Cows and cows' milk are particularly susceptible of being 
 hurt or perverted by witches. 
 
 All the cows' milk of a place in Northumberland was once 
 bewitched, the milk having become so glutinous that it could be 
 drawn out in strings. To remedy this the cows were milked 
 in a south-running stream.* 
 
 When cows eat nettles, or have their udders bitten by 
 pismires, they give bloody or lappered or stringy milk, and 
 then are said to be bewitched. Also when the kirn is witched, 
 and butter will not come, it is discovered that if a stronger 
 person than the owner, whoso strength is failing, does the 
 churning, there is nothing wrong with the product. 
 
 Witched cows recover if sold. 
 
 When a cow calved it was customary to strew salt all along 
 its back to keep the witch from hurting it. 
 
 If a stranger going past a woman milking a cow doesn't say, 
 " Good luck to her," i.e. the cow, some misfortune will befall 
 her. In the parish of Grargunnock, Stirlingshire, if a cow is 
 suddenly taken ill it is ascribed to some extraordinary cause. 
 If a person, when called to see one, does not say, " I wish her 
 luck," there would be a suspicion he had some bad design.t . 
 
 A farmer in Northumberland at one time lost a number of 
 his cattle by a strange malady. Becoming suspicious that tbey 
 were bewitched by a certain malevolent neighour, he had 
 recourse to a " Skeely man," who advised him to take the 
 
 * " Est quando lac etiam cruentum excernitur : quo animadverso, 
 mnlicrculaa lac omnc emulsum aquas fluenti infundunt ; aleae 
 mulctrali inverso id est fundo emulgeat, et signo crucis notant. H«c 
 scribo ut aniles superstitiones istre proditte improbuntuv." — Con. 
 Ocsneri Historia Animalium, vol i. pp. 58, 59. 
 
 f Sinclair's Stat. Acct, of Scotland, xviii. p. 123. 
 
EOEDEU SKETCHES AND FOLKLOEE. 327 
 
 heart of one of the dead cattle and burn it, after having stuck 
 it full of pins. While this was doing he was to take the pre- 
 caution of having the doors and windows kept close. The rite 
 was scarcely half completed, when the person suspected came 
 " reeling '' at the doors and windows for admission, " as if she 
 would pull the house down." If the witch arrives before the 
 heart is consumed, the operation is rendered inefficacious. A 
 sheep's heart stuck full of pins and similarly treated was effica- 
 cious for a bewitched cow. These are from both the north and 
 south of the county. 
 
 " In the parish of Sowerby, near Halifax, Yorkshire," writes 
 Mr. John Carr, of Bondgate Hall, Alnwick, in 1824, "where 
 the writer happened to be at the time, the cow of a poor 
 cottager was taken ill soon after calving, and in the family 
 distress at the prospect of losing its chief support, a cunning 
 man was consulted, who declared that the cow was bewitched 
 and the true calf carried off, and replaced by the witch herself 
 in the shape of the calf then with the cow, and that by sur- 
 rounding the disguised witch with a circle of fire, and slowly 
 roasting her until quite consumed, the cow would recover and 
 the true calf be restored. The horrible sacrifice was actually 
 performed in the midst of the assembled villagers, and the 
 terrific bellowings that issued from the burning sufferer were 
 deomed certain evidence of the witch's presence and inability to 
 escape, and were replied to by triumphant shouts at the success 
 of the infamous proceeding. The cow died, and the vile 
 impostor saved his conjuring reputation by impudently alleging 
 that they had not, as he had urgently directed, conducted the 
 previous preparations with sufficient secrecy, whereby the witch 
 discovered what they wcro about, and again changed places 
 with the calf before the burning." * 
 
 .Wurastle Miiijuiiiie, 1821, p. 4. 
 
328 THE DENHAM TRACTS. 
 
 A female on the harvest ridge, once haying the misfortune 
 to break her sickle, was obliged to proceed home for another. 
 As she went hastening along a hare hirpled across the path 
 before her, and then turned round to gaze. She hurled her 
 broken sickle at the hare, and it sprang suddenly across the 
 field, as if a pack of harriers were on its trail. At her return, 
 near the same spot, she encountered the hare, in the same 
 attitude as before, and, determined not to be beat this time, she 
 launched the fresh sickle at it and struck it on the brow. But 
 instead of flying the hare with a wild scream of vengeance 
 darted at her, and began biting and scratching her on the face 
 like an enraged cat. A fight, attended with loud outcries, then 
 commenced betwixt the two, which two labourers mowing in 
 the vicinity overhearing hastened to the woman's rescue, else 
 there is no saying what might have happened. On attempting 
 to lay hold of the hare it slipped through Iheir hands and 
 escaped. Not long after that a very old woman in that quarter 
 had, in some unknown manner and by a sharp instrument, an 
 ugly gash made athwart her brow. This venerable dame had 
 hitherto been very intimate with the individual who fought with 
 the hare, but from that time forward could not abide her, and 
 diligently avoided her presence. She now fell under the impu- 
 tation of being a witch, for though looked upon askance and 
 with dread, she had hitherto preserved external propriety. 
 Losing this, she came forth in her true colours, renounced the 
 friendship of her former associates, wreaked her fury on milk, 
 butter-churns, and dwining babies, fell foul of the farmer's 
 stock and shook his corn — in short, committed all the untoward 
 disasters within her neighbours' limited geographical range. 
 What befell her I was not told. 
 
 The most powerful efficient in averting the influence of magic 
 and in revoking the spells of witches was witchwood, the 
 mountain ash (Sorbus aucuparia), called in divers parts of 
 Northumberland tho "Whicken tree and Rowan tree. Under 
 
BORDEK SKETCHES AND FOLKLORE. 329 
 
 these standard terms it is mentioned by Turner, the father of 
 English botany, in his Herbal, part ii. fol. 143, Cologne, 1562. 
 " The tre groweth in moyste woodes, and it is called in Norfh- 
 umberlande a rowne tre, or a whicken tre ; in the south partes 
 of England a quick beam tre." Ihre derives the word rowan 
 from runa, incantation, because of the use made of the wood 
 in magical arts. As an infallible antidote to avert supernatural 
 influences of a malignant nature, it has long been celebrated. 
 Nations bore attestation to its sovereign qualities, and assigned 
 to it functions the most select. Eudbeck mentions its sacred 
 character among the northern Gothic tribes. They inscribed 
 their laws upon its wood, an honour which it shared with 
 the beech. Bishop Heber noticed a parallel superstition in 
 Hindustan connected with a species of mimosa, which at a 
 little distance wears considerably the aspect of the mountain 
 ash. " A sprig worn in the turban, or suspended over the 
 bed, was a perfect security against all spells, evil-eye, &c, 
 insomuch that the most formidable wizard would not, if he 
 could help it, approach its shade " (Heber's Journal). In 
 the days of yore, when fairies footed it on every emerald 
 hillock, and witches cast their cantrips with unlimited might — 
 when such a debasing state of ideal fear prevailed that " the 
 sound of a shaken leaf" inspired images of dread — rowan-tree 
 was of paramount importance in Northumberland and else- 
 where. Almost every mansion and outhouse was guarded with 
 it in some shape, for it would have been heresy to doubt the 
 
 adage — 
 
 " Eowan tree and red thread 
 Haud the witches a' in dread." * 
 
 * There is a Roxburghshire saying to this effect : 
 
 " Hagborry, hagberry, hang the deil, 
 Rowan-tree, rowan-tree, help it weel." 
 
 The hag-berry i> the bird -cherry (Primus padus). 
 
330 THE DENHAM TRACTS. 
 
 Usually the dwelling-house was secured with a rowan-tree 
 pin, that the evil thing might not cross the threshold. In 
 addition to the bit in his pocket, the ploughman yoked his oxen 
 to a rowan-tree bow, and with a whip attached to a rowan- 
 tree shaft, drove the incorrigible steer along the ridge. More- 
 over, the ox not unlikely had his horns decorated with red 
 thread, amidst which pieces of rowan-tree were inserted, or a 
 portion of the wood carved with quaint devices and similarly 
 garnished with threads would be dangling at the tail. Thus 
 fenced in person, home, and stall, the agricultural labourer 
 bade defiance to sorcery and fiendish malice. It used to be 
 remembered that once when the axle-tree of a cart driven by 
 a superstitious old man broke down, his more enlightened com- 
 panions jeeringly asked at him where was his " rowan-tiee 
 pin the day ? " In a case of supposed witchcraft in Yorkshire, 
 Aug. 26, 1674, Thomas Bramhall was inexpugnable to magic 
 art, " for they tie soe much whighen about him, I cannot come 
 to my purpose, else I could have worn him away once in two 
 yeares." * But it was equally requisite to a prosperous voyage 
 on the deep, and sailors, to ensure no other hazards than those 
 incidental to their profession, had over and above their cargo 
 a store of this harm-expelling preservative on board, f 
 
 A deceased friend wrote to me several years since, saying : 
 " Mr. John Holmes, of the Banks, in Cumberland, knows an 
 old man who travels the country with besoms. He carries 
 with him and gives to the women, his customers, pieces of 
 rowan-tree, of an inch or so in length, with various cuts and 
 notches on each, two of which, one on each end of the piece 
 of wood, are in the form of a cross. These, he says, if carried 
 in the pocket, will keep off evil spirits." 
 
 * Depositions, §-c.,from York Castle, p. 209. 
 f J. H., in Richardson's Local Hist. Table Book, Leg, Div., ii. 
 1>. 183. 
 
BORDEE SKETCHES AND FOLKLOEE. 331 
 
 I once met with a person who told me a pure version of the 
 enchanted toad at Bamburgh Castle, the same story which 
 Lambe converted into the ballad of the " Laidley Worm," in 
 which the development of the plot mainly depends upon the 
 potentiality of the rowan-tree over whitchcraft. I communi- 
 cated the story to my friend Dr. Johnston, of Berwick, who 
 has interwoven it with his own materials in a passage or two 
 of his Natural History of the Eastern Borders, pp. 233, 234. 
 I will give it nearly as it is found there. Once on a time — 
 a long time ago — Bamburgh Castle was the residence of a 
 witch stepmother, who, from hatred and jealousy, banished her 
 lord's son beyond the seas, and changed his fair daughter into 
 a toad ; and this loathsome shape she was to endure until her 
 brother could return and dissolve the enchantment. The fond 
 brother very often made the attempt to return, but as often in 
 vain, for the coast was guarded by a powerful spell, and every 
 ship that strove to reach the shore was either driven off by 
 invisible agents, or the nails drew off themselves from the 
 beams, and the vessel went to pieces. At length he bethought 
 himself of having a ship built entirely of rowan-tree wood, and 
 the sails and the ropes bound with rod thread. Immediately 
 on the brother's embarkation the vessel bounded over the 
 favouring sea, and in .spite of the might and skill of the witches 
 under the command of the step-dame, it sailed, as if self-moved, 
 into the desired haven.* Lambe's version illustrates this more 
 
 fully : 
 
 " They built a ship without delay, 
 With masts of the rown-tree ; 
 With fluttering sails of silk so tine, 
 And set her on the sea. 
 
 • There was no " interposition of n fairy " in my draft of the 
 story. 
 
332 T3E DENHAM TKACTS. 
 
 " The queen look'd out at her bower window 
 To see what she could see ; 
 There she espied a gallant ship 
 Sailing upon the sea. 
 
 " When she beheld the silken sails 
 Full glancing in the sun, 
 To sink the ship she sent away 
 Her witch, wives every one. 
 
 " The spells were vain ; the hags returned 
 To the queen in sorrowful mood, 
 Crying that witches have no power, 
 Where there is rown-tree wood." 
 
 Aided by the Index, which, however, is not very correct, of 
 the 1st vol. of Richardson's Table Booh, a summary of the 
 incidents of witchcraft in Northumberland and Durham may be 
 compiled. 28th July, 1582, Allison Lawe of Hart, co. Durham, 
 " a notorious sorcerer and enchanter," did penance once in the 
 market-place at Durham, once in Hart Church, and once at 
 Norton Church. Janet Bainbridge and Janet Allenson, of 
 Stockton, were accused of " asking counsell at witches, and 
 resorting to Allison Lawe for cure of the sicke" (Surtees). 
 Two men and two women were committed to prison by Sir John 
 Forster, on suspicion of having caused the death of Nicholas 
 Ridley, of Willimoteswick, sheriff of Northumberland, who died 
 16th January, 1585-6 (Sharp). In 1649, the witch-finder, in 
 consequence of a petition from the inhabitants of Newcastle, was 
 invited there from Scotland by the magistrates. This impostor 
 set aside twenty-seven out of the thirty suspected persons, and 
 in consequence fourteen witches and one wizard belonging to 
 Newcastle were executed on the town moor (Gardiner's England's 
 Grievance). The following entry occurs in tho register of the 
 parochial chapelry of St. Andrew in Newcastle : " 1650, 21st 
 
BORDER SKETCHES AND FOLKLORE. 333 
 
 August. — Thes partes her under named, wer executed in the town 
 mor for wiches. — Isab' Brown, Margrit Maddeson, Ann Watson, 
 Ellenor Henderson, Elisabeth Dobson, Matthew Boner, Mrs. 
 Elisabeth Anderson, Jane Huntor, Jane Koupling, Margrit 
 Brown, Margrit Moffit, Ellenor Robson for stellin of silver 
 spownes, Kattren Wellsh for a wieh, Aylles Hume, Marie 
 Pootes." At the close occurs " Jane Martin, the miliars wif 
 of Chattin, for a wieh." In 1649 the following entry occurs in 
 Gateshead parish books, whence it is copied into Sykes' Local 
 Records : " Paid at M ti9 Watson's when the justices sat to 
 examine the witches, 3s. 4d. ; for a grave for a witch, 6d. ; for 
 trying the witches, £1 5s." 
 
 The witch-finder afterwards went into Northumberland to 
 try women there, where he got of some three pounds a piece to 
 allow them to escape, for which being called in question he fled 
 into Scotland, where it is satisfactory to know he was hanged 
 (Brand). July 30, 1649, the magistrates of Berwick invited 
 him to try witches within the town (Fuller). 
 
 In January, 1652, Francis Adamson and one named Powle 
 were executed in the city of Durham for witchcraft (Surtees). 
 At the assizes at Durham, July, 1668, Alice Armstrong, wife 
 of Christopher Armstong, of Shotton, labourer, was tried for 
 bewitching to death an oxe belonging to Barbara Thompson 
 (Sykes). 
 
 In the Legendary Division of the Table Bool; i. pp. 391, 
 396, Mr. Robert White narrates the adventures of one of the 
 Delavals of Seaton Delaval with witches, whose place of con- 
 vention for the performance of horrible rites was Wallsend Old 
 Church. 
 
 " The Witches of Birtley " form the subject of a well-written 
 sketch by James Telfer in his Tales and Ballads (London, 1852, 
 pp. 241-261). I question, however, if there is any more 
 truth in it than the declaration in the opening sentence that 
 
334 THE DENHAM TRACTS. 
 
 " the village of Birtley, in North Tynedale, is spoken of by 
 tradition as having been at one time a notable haunt of witches." 
 Jane Frizzle, a notorious witch on the Northumbrian side of the 
 Derwent, near Muggleswick, as we learn from a note to a poem 
 in the Derwent, written by Dr. John Carr, who died in 1807, 
 "practised on men, maidens, and cattle," but ere he had com- 
 posed it " she had long breathed her last." The scene of Robert 
 Davidson of Morebattle's poem, " The Witch's Cairn," was, I 
 was told by the late Mr. George Tate, Newton Torr, on the 
 River College, among the Cheviots. Its natural crown of rock, 
 resembling a ruinous castle, certainly corresponds to " the old 
 cairn on the edge of the fell," but the author in his notes does 
 not exactly specify where it was situated. This little book, 
 entitled Leaves from a Peasant's Cottage Drawer, was pub- 
 lished in Edinburgh in 1848, pp. 230, 18mo. His notes make 
 reference to cases of witch-burning at Beggar-Muir on the 
 estate of Hartrigge, near Jedburgh, where the last victim is 
 supposed to have perished in 1696. 
 
 Margaret Stothard, a poor old woman belonging to Edling- 
 ham, was, 22nd Jan., 1682-3, delated for witchcraft and charm- 
 ing before Henry Ogle, of Edlingham, Esq. The depositions 
 elicited several popular beliefs in this department of necro- 
 mancy. To John Mills, a yeoman at Edlingham Castle, while 
 he was in his bed at night, came something in a blast of wind, 
 which, pressing him over the heart, emitted cries like those of a 
 cat ; then a light shone at the bed-foot, and Margaret Stothard 
 was visible in the light ; with which visitation he was so greatly 
 affrighted that he took a fit, during which it required several 
 persons to hold him. Moreover, one night, when returning 
 from paying his rent, be had occasion to ride past her door, when 
 a flash of light crossed " over before him, and as he thought 
 went to her dore," wherewith both him and his horse were 
 terrorstruck ; for " his hair stood upward on his head," and his 
 
BOHDKE SKETCHES AND FOLKLORE. 335 
 
 horse " took to a stand and would neither goe back nor for- 
 ward," till he prayed to a higher power for deliverance. This 
 same woman had charmed a sick or rather a bewitched child 
 of one Jane Carr, of Lemenden, and cast the trouble upon a 
 calf, which " went perfectly madd," and had to be slaughtered. 
 A child of a woman belonging to Lorbottle, who had slighted 
 this supposed witch in denying her alms, grew unwell the next 
 morning, complaining that the woman was like to break her 
 back, and press out her heart, and continued in this condition 
 till she died next morning about cock-crow. " My Lady 
 Widdrington," being informed of the circumstances, could form 
 no other conclusion than that the child had been bewitched. 
 But the more curious particulars are contained in the evidence 
 of Isabel Maine, of Shawdon, spinster, who was the dairymaid 
 of Jacob Pearson, of Titlington, gent. The milk of the cows 
 having gone wrong would not produce cheese, and believing 
 this to be occasioned by " some witch or other," she applied to 
 Margaret Stothard, of Edlingham, as a " reputed charmer." 
 Margaret promised to make all right again, and accomplished 
 it within eight days. Although Miss Maine was a half believer 
 in Margaret's powers, she was not disposed to make experiments 
 on the subject ; still she must have her curiosity satisfied. " In- 
 formant asked the said Margaret Stothard the reason why the 
 milk came to be in that condition, she the said Margaret said 
 that it was forespoken. and that some ill eyes had looked on it ; 
 and this Informant further asked her what was the reason that 
 her master's cows swett soe when they stood in the byar ; and 
 then she bidd liir take salt and water and rubb upon their backs, 
 and she further said to this Informant as touching the milk, 
 allwayes when you goe to milke your cowes put a little salt in 
 your pale or skeel ; this Informant refusing to doe that, she 
 would then give her a piece of Rowntree wood, and bid her 
 take that alwayes along with hir when she went to the cowes." 
 
336 THE DENHAM TBAOTS. 
 
 She kept the piece of wood, but found no necessity for using it, 
 as the quality of the milk was restored, and she could get " both 
 butter and cheese of it." She then proposed to pay Margaret 
 " for hir soe mending or charming of the said milk, and would 
 have given hir a penny, and said it was charmer's dues, but she 
 answered and said noe, a little of anything will serve me." Her 
 master being informed of it, gave Margaret a fleece of wool, to 
 which she added a little more, in a free-handed sort of way ; 
 the result being that after that " they had their milke in very 
 good order." The last piece of advice received, she indignantly 
 rejected. " The said Margaret Stothard said if you judge any 
 person that hath wronged your milke, take your cowe-tye and 
 aske the milke againe for God's sake (a common formula in such 
 a case),* and she the said informant answered she would neer 
 do that, if their milke should never be right any more." f It is 
 probable that no further proceedings were taken. 
 
 In a calendar of prisoners confined in the Castle of New- 
 castle, to be tried at the assizes in 1628-9, occurs the name of 
 " Jane Eobson, wife of Matthew Eobson of Leeplish," in 
 Tynedale, committed by " Cuthbert Ridley, clerk, 19° July, 
 1628," and charged "with the felonious killing of Mabell 
 Robson, the wife of George Robson, of Leeplish aforesaid, his 
 brother-in-law," by sorcery or witchcraft.^ 
 
 In 1711 William Grey was a quack and warlock doctor at 
 Littlehoughton, Northumberland. (Parish Register of Long- 
 houghton >y ) 
 
 * Milking the cow-tether, see Napier's Folklore, <$•<;., pp. 75, 170 ; 
 Henderson's Folklore, pp. 199, 200 ; Chambers' Popular Rhymes of 
 Scotland, p. 329, ed. 1870 : Kelly's Indo-Europ. Trad, and Folklore, 
 p. 230. 
 
 ■f Mackenzie's Hist, of Northumberland, ii. pp. 33-36. 
 
 t Mickleton MSS. in ibid., p. 36. 
 
BOEDER SKETCHES AND FOLKLORE. 337 
 
 The belief in witchcraft died hard. Among the obituary 
 notices in the Newcastle Chronicle for March 21, 1807, occurs 
 the following : " At Hartburn, near Stockton, aged upwards 
 of 90, a woman, who has for many years past, by the common 
 people, been reputed a witch." 
 
 A proprietor of an estate near Wooler, a generation back, 
 erected a shepherd's cottage in a most exposed situation near 
 the summit of Hartsheugh, one of the lower Cheviot Hills. 
 The wife of the last shepherd who tenanted it got credit for 
 being a witch and a brewer of storms. The winds, however, 
 overmatched her, for they not only dismantled the house, but 
 " blew up the hearth-stone." 
 
 In a list of the inhabitants of Wooler about 1782, written by 
 James Jackson from recollection in 1837, I find mention of 
 " Jenny Hardy, a reputed [witch," as living near Padge Pool 
 Garden, about the north-west end of the town. The house and 
 its neighbour,5Jboth very low-roofed and small, are now 
 removed. 
 
 An anonymous writer, who dates from Alnwick, Feb. 14, 
 1770, gives a credible statement of the effects of being nurtured 
 up in superstitious beliefs, such as were prevalent at that period, 
 witchcraft being not the smallest to be dreaded. The writer 
 had been initiated by his grandmother, until he became a 
 "perfect adept in all the branches of superstition, from the 
 trifling prognostics of coffee-grounds to the awful predictions of 
 the planetary worlds." " A hare could not start or a magpie 
 chatter in my walks which I did not interpret as prognosticating 
 some calamity. A couple of straws lying across each other in 
 my path were as terrible as a drawn sword in the hand of a 
 murderous ruffian." " My case was by no means singular. I 
 had several acquaintances equally wrapt up in superstitious 
 absurdity. One would not pare his nails on a Friday because it 
 
 VOL. II. z 
 
338 THE DENHAM TRACTS. 
 
 was unlucky; another would refrain from going on the most 
 important journey if he met a person carrying water as he set 
 out ; and a third pretended to cure several distempers by burn- 
 ing horse-shoes in the chamber fire while he repeated certain 
 magical prayers and incantations over the patient. A poor old 
 superannuated woman was nearly bled to death by our thrusting 
 a large pin into a vein in her temples, we having long suspected 
 her for a witch, and the author of several little accidents which 
 at that time befel us ; many of us constantly wore charms and 
 amulets for the prevention of witchcraft ; and in short, we were 
 devoted slaves to all the foolish freits which fable yet has 
 feign'd or fear conceived."* 
 
 Mr. Raine is of opinion that in none of the trial cases there 
 was any conviction, and compliments the clear-headed jurymen 
 of the North from their freedom from prejudice. At some of the 
 Durham assizes the accused were perhaps not so fortunate. In 
 1649-50 witches cost the ratepayers of Gateshead much good 
 money. " The poor suspected creatures had sad treatment at 
 the hands of blind justice : arrested, examined, imprisoned, 
 buried, — at the charge of the community." 
 
 £ s. d. 
 Going to the justices about the witches . . . .040 
 Paid at Mrs. Watson's when the justices sat to examine 
 
 A the witches . .034 
 
 Given to them in the Tolebouth, and carrying the witches 
 
 to Durham . . . . . . . .040 
 
 To constables, for carrying the witches to goul . .040 
 
 Trying the witches . . . . , . .15 
 
 A grave for a witch 6 
 
 The departed witch of St. Mary's, buried at a charge of six- 
 
 * The Literary Register or Weekly Miscellany, vol. ii. pp. 48, 44. 
 Newcastle, 1770. 
 
BOEDER SKETCHES AND FOLKLORE. 339 
 
 pence for her grave, would be committed to the earth in a parish 
 coffin* 
 
 Notes op Possession in Books. 
 
 In a copy of Sir John Skene's Regiam Majestatem, Edin- 
 burgh, 1609, that had belonged in 1 708 to Sir James Calder, 
 of Muirtoune, who was created a baronet 5th November, 1686, 
 I find the following : 
 
 " This book is mine if ye would know, 
 By leters nyne I will you show, 
 The first is J, a leter bright, 
 The next is Calder in all mens sight. 
 
 James Calder." 
 
 " Sir James Calder of Mourtone is the right owner of this book, 
 1708 years. Amen." 
 
 " Hear is a book, but small, 
 But doth in it contain." 
 
 This book had also been the property of Robert Gordon, 
 rector of Sutherland, 1617, also of George Lord Strathnaver, 
 who died fifteenth Earl of Sutherland, 4th March, 1703. It 
 contains another rhyme in an ancient hand. 
 
 " James Desenne God me defend, 
 And in my misrie God wits send, 
 I pray to God my hand to mend, 
 And bring my sowell to ane guid end. 
 ffinis quoth dan bobus." 
 
 * Mr. James Clephane on Abigail and Timothy Tyzack, and Old 
 Gateshead. Arch. /Elian., n.s., viii. pp. 230, 231. 
 
 z 2 
 
340 the denham tkacts. 
 
 Some New Year's Observances. 
 
 To request a light on the morning of the New Year in North 
 Northumberland is held by those retentive of old scruples as a 
 very bad omen. At a farmhouse a careless servant, neglecting 
 to cover up her fire on the Old Year's night, had to be obliged to 
 her neighbours before it would kindle in the morning. Her 
 master, apprised of the fatal omission, predicted some unforseen 
 evil would be the consequence, and accordingly some time after 
 two valuable cows that this girl milked were found one morning 
 strangled at the stake. Several will not for any consideration 
 even allow a borrowed fire to proceed from their dwellings. 
 This heathenish belief is condemned about a.d. 746, in a letter 
 from St. Boniface to Pope Zachary, whence it appears that " at 
 Rome on New Year's day no one would suffer a neighbour to 
 take fire out of her house, or anything of iron, or lend any- 
 thing." (Hospinian apud Brand, Pop. Ant., i. 9.) Nor was it 
 lucky to sweep any dirt or ashes out of the house, nor throw 
 out dirty water on New Year's day, but it was customary to 
 gather everything inward, in order that plenty might bless the 
 household for another season. All dirty clothes must be washed 
 up before the New Year's advent. While careful thus of 
 keeping one's property together, it was on the other hand 
 unlucky to go out empty-handed, and to meet one with a bottle 
 and glass in hand was fortunate. On that day to meet as first- 
 foot a person with the eyebrows met was considered a bad 
 encounter. To spill salt is at all times unlucky, but it is 
 especially heinous on New Year's day. The coincidence of these 
 with some of the observances at New Year's tide in the West 
 of Scotland are worth remarking. Confer Napier's Folklore, p. 
 160. 
 
 The Eev. G. Home Hall, F.S.A., in his article in the Arch. 
 jEliana, n.s., viii. pp. 66, G7 (1879), on " Ancient Well Wor- 
 
BOEDER SKETCHES AND FOLKLORE. 341 
 
 ship in North Tynedale," mentions several curious observance?, 
 connected with wells in West Northumberland at New Year's 
 tide, survivals of ancient paganism. At the ancient village of 
 Wark there are three springs of water for tho supply of the 
 inhabitants. " On New Year's morning, within memory, each 
 of these wells was visited by the villagers in the hope of 
 their being the first to take what was called the ' Flower 
 of the Well ' [see Brand's Popular Antiquities, vol. ii. p. 366 
 et seq., who refers to this curious custom], that is, the first 
 draught drunk by any one in the New Year. I have heard of 
 one aged crone, who had the reputation of being uncanny, and 
 concerned in forbidden devices of witchcraft, endeavouring to 
 anticipate her rivals by going to the wells before ' the witching 
 midnight hour,' so as to be in readiness for the advent of the 
 incoming year. Whoever first drank of the spring would obtain, 
 it was believed, marvellous powers throughout the next year, 
 even to the extent, as my informant averred, of being able to 
 pass through key-holes and take nocturnal flights in the air. 
 And the fortunate recipient of such extraordinary powers notified 
 his or her acquisition thereof by casting into the well an offering 
 of flowers or grass, hay or straw, from seeing which the next 
 earliest devotees would know that their labour was in vain when 
 they, too late, came to the spring in the hope of possessing the 
 flower of the well." At the Croft-foot Well at Birtley (formerly 
 Birkley) the same custom was followed in the last generation. 
 "There the villagers of a generation ago frequented the well in 
 early hours of the New Year, like their neighbours at Wark ; 
 but they held that the fortunate first visitant of the well on New 
 Year's morning who should fill his flask or bottle with the water 
 would find that it retained its freshness and purity throughout 
 the whole year, and also brought good luck to the house in which 
 it remained." 
 
342 the denham teacts. 
 
 Midsummer Bonfires. 
 
 The Rev. Gr. R. Hall, writing in 1879, says that " the fire 
 festivals or bonfires of the summer solstice at the Old Mid- 
 summer until recently were commemorated on Christenburg 
 Craga and elsewhere by leaping through and dancing round the 
 fires, as those who have been present have told me." " The 
 driving of cattle through the smoke of the need-fire, as a sup- 
 posed preventative of murrain, and the carrying from farm to 
 farm as quickly as men could ride the sacred self-lighted fire, 
 made by two pieces of dry or rotted wood being rubbed together 
 very quickly, has occurred at Birtley within the last thirty years ; 
 and this forms one of the most recent survivals of the adoration 
 once so generally rendered to the great orb of day and to the 
 element of fire." * 
 
 The Rev. J. E. Elliot Bates, rector of Whalton, in a paper 
 on Whalton and its Vicinity, written for the Berwickshire 
 Naturalists' Club (Proc, vol. vi. pp. 242-3 J, narrates that " on 
 Midsummer's eve, reckoned according to the old style, it was 
 formerly the custom of the inhabitants, young and old, not only 
 of Whalton but of most of the adjacent villages, to collect a 
 large cartload of whins and other combustible materials, which 
 was dragged by them with great rejoicing (a fiddler being seated 
 on the top of the cart) into the village and erected into a pile. 
 The people from the surrounding country assembled towards 
 evening, when it was set on fire ; and whilst the young danced 
 around it, the elders looked on smoking their pipes and drinking 
 their beer, until it was consumed. There can be little doubt 
 that this curious old custom dates from a very remote antiquity." 
 In his evidence in March, 1878, in the Whalton Green case, 
 which was deoided in favour of the right of user by the villagers, 
 
 * Archaeologia jEliana, n.s., viii. p. 73. 
 
BOEDER SKETCHES AND FOLKLORE. 343 
 
 the rector of Whalton gave evidence as to the constant use of 
 the part of the green in question since 1843. "The bonfire," 
 he said, " was lighted a little to the north-east of the well at 
 Whalton, and partly on the footpath, and people danced round 
 it and jumped through it. That was never interrupted." * 
 
 Friday Unlucky. 
 
 The Messrs. Kichardson, painters, Newcastle, were super- 
 stitious observers of lucky and unlucky days. They were 
 invited on a Saturday to Day the artist's to inspect a particular 
 process, but they had an engagement elsewhere. " Why not 
 come on Friday then " asked Mr. Day, " when none of us are 
 occupied?" The excuse was, "Me an' ma son dinna' like to 
 begin any work on a Friday." 
 
 It is unlucky to enter into the occupancy of a house at term- 
 time on a Friday ; and Friday is not a good day to buy or make 
 a bargain on. Sailors reckon Friday the worst day to sail on ; 
 Sunday is the best day for a fortunate voyage. An emigrant 
 vessel that sailed on a Friday was wrecked. 
 
 In Northumberland it is unlucky to cut hair on a Friday, or 
 pare the nails on a Sunday, for according to the rhyme : 
 
 " Friday's hair and Sunday's horn, 
 Ye'll meet the Black Man on Monanday morn." 
 
 See also Dyer's English Folklore, p. 237 : 
 
 " Friday cut and Sunday shorn, 
 Better never have been born." 
 
 On the other hand, " an old hexameter at the end of the 
 editions of Ausonius has: Ungues Mercurio, barbam Jove, 
 
 Arch. uEliana, ubi tap. 
 
344 THE DENHAM TEACTS. 
 
 Oypride crinis (nails on Wednesday, beard on Thursday, hair 
 on Friday)"* 
 
 In Westmoreland, " there are few country people will begin 
 any important work on the Friday. If they commence hay- 
 making or the corn harvest on that day, they believe it will have 
 an unfortunate termination. It is an unlucky day, and it will 
 not do to begin anything of consequence on that day." f 
 
 At Wooler it is the same: "Never begin any work," old 
 people would tell you, "that ye canna finish that week." 
 
 Barking-out Day. 
 
 On this subject I received a communication which is dated 
 Newcastle, May 18th, 1844, from Mr. Eobert Bolam, who I 
 was informed kept a school there. J I shall preserve it nearly iu 
 the form in which I obtained it, as it preserves some peculiari- 
 ties in a teacher's life not likely to occur now ; although among 
 the Cheviots, not many years ago, I encountered young men 
 who kept school and were boarded alternately for a month in 
 the shepherds' houses who had children. 
 
 " Barring-out day " was the last school day in the year — the 
 day in which all schools broke up for the Christmas holidays, 
 and was looked forward to with great anxiety by the pupils in 
 the county of Northumberland. A day on which they for one 
 short hour were to have the mastery was worth all the rest of 
 the year. On that day a small subscription was made; in 
 general the boys contributed 3d. and the girls 2d. each, 
 
 * Grimm's Teutonic Mythology, vol. i. p. 123, English edition, 
 t Mr. Pearson on Superstitions of Westmoreland, &c, London 
 Saturday Journal, vol. i. p. 130 (1841). 
 
 J Mr. Bolam contributed to Richardson's Table Book, Leg. Div., i. 
 DO, 1'7, " "Wild Ad^el1^u^cs with the Dwarfs on Simonside Hills." 
 
BORDER SKETCHES AND FOLKLORE. 345 
 
 defaulters being as rare as they were odious. To this the 
 master, though well aware of the coming mutiny, added a 
 donation of sixpence or a shilling, and several neighbours too 
 aided the fund. With this money a quantity of bread and 
 strong beer was procured, wherewith the scholars regaled them- 
 selves until they became warm with the liquor, when the master 
 was mobbed and turned out and the door locked on him. A 
 parley then took place as to the number of days' play the 
 children were to have, nor was the dominie admitted again until 
 the terms were settled and he had consented to forgive them for 
 their riotous conduct. 
 
 When it is understood that the quarter pence still run on 
 during the vocation, it may naturally be asked why the master 
 had so strong an objection to a lengthened recess ? Though I 
 do not profess to trace the custom back to its origin, I will 
 hazard a conjecture that the social manner in which school- 
 masters were in those times usually engaged was not without 
 its influence on the conduct of both masters and pupils. It was 
 customary for two or more of the wealthier inhabitants of a 
 rural district to give the master his board and lodging, in weekly 
 rotation, for the tuition of their children, allowing him to make 
 what he could by the attendance of others in the vicinity. In 
 many cases the pocket money accruing to the master was very 
 scanty, and as he had to spend the holidays among his own 
 friends and relations, a long vacation pressed sore upon his 
 scanty finances, and furnished him with a sufficient motive for 
 an early return to his free quarters, while on the other hand the 
 children in their fondness for play cared not how long his stay 
 was protracted. 
 
 [Mr. Bolam had forgotten that if the schoolmaster had 
 abdicated too long, his manliness would have been called in 
 question, and it would have been said of him that the children 
 hud the iipperhand ; moreover, if he was conscientious, there 
 
346 THE DENHAM TRACTS. 
 
 was the waste of precious time, even though the days were then 
 of the briefest.] 
 
 Mr. B. goes on to relate the only instance in which he ever 
 saw " barring-out" put into practice:— On the 23rd December, 
 1808, the pupils of Mr. Edward Storey, at Throphill, assembled 
 in the schoolroom during the dinner hour, and having elected 
 one of the senior boys as speaker, locked themselves in. On 
 the master arriving and peremptorily requiring admission, the 
 youth behind the door resolutely requested a fortnight's play. 
 After a little altercation, the master, perceiving himself likely to 
 be made the object of ridicule by the neighbours, who began to 
 assemble to see the fun, thought it most prudent to accede to 
 the terms, but no sooner had he set his foot over the threshold 
 than he broke his word by abridging the term to nine or ten 
 days. In this instance the bread and beer were not brought in 
 till the middle of the afternoon. In this school these customs 
 were wholly done away with on the following season by Mr. 
 Alexander Ross, Mr. Storey's successor. 
 
 [At Alnwick Grammar School, when Mr. Eumney was 
 master, a famous barring-out occurred, which lasted for a week. 
 It was headed by Percival Stockdale, who describes it in his 
 Memoirs, vol. i. pp. 88-92 ; see also Tate's Hist, of Alnwick, ii. 
 pp. 90, 91, 96. At that place this anniversary was observed on 
 St. Andrew's day. It is still practised in some rural schools, 
 but the playtime is rarely more than a single day. The contri- 
 butions levied by the scholars are spent on sweetmeats. In 
 Scotland "themaister is steeketoot" on the "shortest day." 
 In the school that I attended there was an annual " barring- 
 out." The verses used were very puerile, although defiant: 
 
 " This is the shortest day, 
 An' we maun hae the play, 
 An' if ye wunna gies the play, 
 We'll steek ye oot a' the day."] 
 
BORDER SKETCHES AND FOLKLORE. 347 
 
 GniBARDiNO Rhymes. 
 
 Redd room, redd room, for Guisard's sport, 
 For to this house I must resort ; 
 Kesort, resort, for merry play, 
 Call in Goliah, and he'll clear the way. 
 
 A room, a room, my gallant boys, 
 
 Give us room to rise. 
 
 Stir up the fire and give us light, 
 
 For in this house shall be a fight. 
 
 If you don't belieye the word I say, 
 
 111 call in Goliah, and he'll clear the way. 
 
 No. 2. Here comes I, Goliah, Goliah is my name, 
 
 "With sword and pistol by my side, I hope to win the game. 
 No. 1. The game, sir, the game, sir, it's not within your power ; 
 
 I'll slash you to inches in less than half an hour. 
 Nos. 1 and 2 fight ; 2 falls, and 1 breaks out into a lament. 
 No. 1. Alas ! alas I what's this I've done ? 
 
 I've ruin'd myself, and kill'd my only son ; 
 
 Hound the kitchen, round the hall, 
 
 Is there not a Doctor to be found at all ? 
 
 One at the door says : 
 
 No. 3. Yes I here am I, Johnny Brown, 
 
 The best Doctor in the town. 
 No. 1. How came you to be the best Doctor in the town ? 
 No. 3. By my travels. 
 No. 1. Where did you travel ? 
 No. 3. Hickerty, pickerty, France and Spain, 
 
 Then back to old England again. 
 No. 1 . "What can you cure ? 
 No. 8. Anything. 
 No. 1. Can you cure a dead man ? 
 No. 3. Yes, indeed, that I can. 
 
 [Holds a bottle to the slain champion, and says : 
 Rise up, Jack, and fight again. 
 The result being that lie is resuscitated. 
 
348 THE DENHAM TEACTS. 
 
 No. 4 enters. Here comes in old Row-rumple, 
 On my shoulder I carry a dumple, 
 In my hand a piece of fat. 
 Please can you pitch a copper into my old hat. 
 
 After this beggarly conclusion, and the singing of a song or 
 two, the little actors, having obtained a donation, hasten off to 
 the next dwelling. 
 
 Verses used in old Valentines in Northumberland and 
 Berwickshire. 
 
 heart of gold ! thou love of mine, 
 
 1 drew you for my Valentine ; 
 I drew you out among the rest, 
 And took you for my very hest. 
 
 The rose is red, the violet's blue, 
 The honey's sweet, love, so are you I 
 And so are they that sent you this, 
 And when we meet, we'll have a kiss. 
 
 Round is (or as) the ring that has no end, 
 So is my love to you, my friend ; 
 My heart and hand are joined together, 
 Your love may change, but mine can never. 
 
 The ring is round, the bed is square, 
 You and I shall be a pair. 
 
 Some draw valentines by lot, 
 And some draw those that they love not ; 
 But I draw you whom I love best, 
 And choose you from among the rest. 
 
 The ring is round, and hath no end, 
 And this I send to you, my friend ; 
 And if you take it in good part, 
 I shall be glad with all my heart. 
 
BOEDER SKETCHES AND FOLKLORE. 349 
 
 But if you do these lines refuse, 
 
 The paper burn, pray me excuse. 
 
 Excuse me now for being so bold, 
 
 I should have wrote your name in gold ; 
 
 But gold was scarce, as you may think, 
 
 "Which made me write your name with ink. 
 
 The above purports to be taken from a collection of last- 
 century valentines, and was sent by Thomas Groom to Ann 
 Jebb. "Ann Jebb, however, married, in 1788, a Mr. Nun- 
 nerly, and became grandmother of one of the six hundred of the 
 Balaklava charge." 
 
 Kern-rhymes in Northumbeuland. 
 
 On the conclusion of the harvest, while carrying the corn- 
 baby from the field, the reapers shout : 
 
 " A kern, a kern, a heigh-ho ! 
 A kern, a kern, a heigh-ho ! 
 For Mr. B.'s corn's a' well shorn, 
 And we'll hae a kern, a heigh-ho." 
 
 It is usually recited by the clearest-voiced individual in the 
 company. The following specimen of it has often awakened 
 the echoes on the green banks of the Wansbeck : 
 
 " Blessed be the day our Saviour was born ; 
 For Master Lennox's corn's all well shorn, 
 And we will have a good supper to-night, 
 And a drinking of ale, and a kern ! a kern ! ahoa ! " 
 
 Those who would not join in the call had their ears "cobbed," 
 or roughly pulled and pinched. In Glendale an abbreviated 
 version of the harvest rhyme is in use : 
 
 " The master's corn is ripe — and shorn, 
 We bless the day that he was born, 
 Shouting a kern 1 a kern ! ahoa." 
 
350 the denham tracts. 
 
 The Dbowned Faa, a Wooleb Tradition. 
 
 The Wooler Fairs were wont to be regularly frequented by- 
 numbers of the Yetholm gypsies. At one of these periodical 
 gatherings a female " faa " stole a pair of shoes from a stall. 
 There had been in those days an inefficient system of police, for 
 the Wooler people (although some ascribed the hasty action to 
 the country attenders, tradesmen, or others of the fair) broke 
 out and drowned the culprit off-hand in the " Blue Mill " dam. 
 One man, it used to be told with shuddering, set his foot on the 
 struggling victim to hold her down in the water. When 
 reflection succeeded this popular outburst, the dead body was 
 dragged out and laid upon a high stone, still conspicuous on the 
 wooded bank east of the town, above the present Wooler Mill, 
 where the slime was washed from the inanimate form. The 
 gypsies never forgot the cruel outrage, and vowed revenge on 
 the town, although, owing to the watch kept on them, they 
 were prevented from putting their threats into execution. Old 
 people, all gone now, used to keep in memory their dread of 
 this retaliation. The town also was believed to lie under a 
 curse for the unexpiated offence against justice, and whenever a 
 long continuance of snow, or thunder, or rain, or gloomy days 
 prevailed, the superstitious would mutter to each other that the 
 prophecy was being fulfilled, " that a race of bad weather will 
 hang over Wooler, for the death of Jean Gordon, drowned in 
 tho mill-dam." Singular effect of isolation and consequent 
 dependence on physical phenomena, that they feared no retri- 
 bution worse than frowning skies, and imagined that they had 
 spells of bad weather in which the rest of the district did not 
 participate ! — J. H., in The Gypsies of Yetholm, tyc, edited by 
 Wm. Brockie, Kelso, 1884, pp. 138-9. 
 
 Denwick. 
 Denwiok, a pretty village of sixteen cottages, was one of the 
 
BOEDEE SKETCHES AND FOLKLOBE. 351 
 
 ancient villa of Alnwick barony. " At Michaelmas time Aln- 
 wick feasted and Denwick played; and on the Monday the 
 youthful population of Alnwick went to enjoy the games ; the 
 distinction appears in the old popular rhyme : 
 
 "Alnwick feast and Denwick play, 
 Bonnie lasses had-away." 
 
 Had-away is an Alnwickism, meaning come away. Tate's 
 Hist, of Alnwick, ii. p. 376. 
 
 Games. 
 
 All the ordinary games of football, handball, droppy-pocket- 
 handkerchief, kittie-cat and buck-stick, or as it is called in 
 Scotland, hornie holes, clubbing or brandy-ball, and through- 
 the-needle-se, were played in the Pasture at Alnwick on Shrove- 
 tide, Easter, Whitsuntide, Michaelmas, Christmas, and other 
 holidays. Not far from Ferniherst Castle, a very large oak 
 tree, one of the last remains of the great Forest of Jed, is 
 called the capon-tree ; and near to Brampton, by the roadside, 
 stands [stood] the branchless trunk of a capon-tree, beneath 
 whose shade, tradition says, a cold collation, of which capons 
 were the principal dainties, was provided for the judges of 
 assize when met there by the authorities of Carlisle.* 
 
 * In Dr. Kobert Chambers's Popular Rhymes of Scotland, p. 115, 
 there is a ball-playing rhyme : 
 
 " Stottie ba', hinnie ba', and all to me, 
 How mony bairns am I to hae? 
 Ane to live, and ane to dee, 
 And ane to sit on the nurse's knee ! " 
 
 Addressed to a handball by girls, who suppose that they will have 
 many children as the times they succeed in catching it. 
 
352 THE DENHAM TEACTS. 
 
 Keppin Well. 
 
 Glanton has a famous well with imaginary salubrious qualities. 
 It was the common well of the villagers, and lies near the base 
 of a slope of Glanton Hill beyond the present school-house, and 
 the water issued from a pipe. I am told that it was once custo- 
 mary for parents to take their weakly children to it in summer 
 to be strengthened by the application of its refreshing waters. 
 They were wrapped up in blankets and placed under the spout. 
 It was called the Keppin' or Keppie "Well, owing to the water 
 having to be caught or " kepped " in pails, or skeels, or jugs, 
 with which the townspeople resorted to it in the morning to take 
 their turn in carrying home the domestic supply for the day. 
 It was a great resort for gossip, but had no connection with 
 "kepping " in the sense of convention. 
 
 Callaly Castle Khymes. 
 
 The old generation who dwelt round Callaly Castle, it has 
 been ascertained of late years, had some reason for their rhymes 
 and traditions of another structure than the castle that occupies 
 the present low-lying site having occupied the area of the old 
 British Camp on Callaly Castle Hill. In preparing for a meet- 
 ing of the Berwickshire Naturalists' Club, on June 25th, 1890, 
 Major A. H. Browne, the genial and kind-hearted owner, caused 
 excavations to be made all over the platform occupied by the 
 extensive settlement of the pre-historic race who had made it a 
 stronghold. The operation is not jet completed, but this much 
 has been revealed, that within the area of the ancient encamp- 
 ment there are the foundations of a medieval building of an 
 oblong shape, constructed of ashlar stones laid with mortar, and 
 that the occupants had strengthened the interior wall of the old 
 camp with a facing of mortar-laid ashlar, of which two courses 
 
BORDER SKETCHES AND FOLKLORE. 353 
 
 at least are still preserved, having till lately been buried under 
 rubbish, and tliat they had also strongly rebuilt the walls of the 
 main gateway, and while quarrying for materials to execute 
 these operations had deepened the ditches of the camp rings. 
 It is just possible that this newly discovered edifice may have 
 been the " Castrum de Kaloule vet'," the Castle of Old Callaly 
 of the List of Fortalices, made in 1415, but which afterwards 
 the owners may have removed to a more sheltered and better 
 watered situation in the vale below. That there was in 1415 a 
 " New Callaly " is apparent from " Old Callaly " being speci- 
 fied in the return of fortified places of defence on the Borders 
 at that period. 
 
 The rhyme appears to have been popular, as it has become 
 subject to numerous variations. I have before me materials for 
 the history of these, which it may be of interest to preserve in 
 a series. 
 
 (1) It first occurs in Bell's " Northern Bards ," 1812, p. 199, 
 with this comment : 
 
 "At Callaly, the seat of the Claverings, tradition reports that, 
 while the workmen were engaged in erecting the castle upon a 
 hill, a little distance from the present edifice, they were surprised 
 every morning to find their former day's work destroyed, and 
 the whole impeded by supernatural obstacles, which causing 
 them to watch, they heard a voice saying : 
 
 ' Callaly Castle stands on a height ; 
 It's up in the day, and down at night ; 
 Build it down on the Shepherd's Shaw, 
 There it will stand and never fa'.' 
 
 Upon which the building was transferred to the place mentioned, 
 where it now stands." 
 
 (2) Taken down from tradition from an ancient North- 
 umbrian in Gateshead : 
 
 VOL. II. 2 A 
 
354 THE DENHAM TRACTS. 
 
 " Callaly Castle stands on a height, 
 Up in the day, and down in the night ; 
 Set it up on the Shepherd's Shaw, 
 There it will stand and never fa'." 
 
 J Hardy, in Richardson's Table Book, Leg. Div., ii. p. 109 (1846); 
 whence it was transferred to Mr. G. B. Richardson's Guide to 
 the Newcastle and Berwick Railway, p. 12, and M. A. Denham's 
 Popular Rhymes, $c, 1858 ; Monthly Chronicle, 1889, pp. 378-9. 
 
 The first line, as I learned afterwards, varies to : 
 " Callaly Ha' stands up on a height." 
 
 (3) " Callaly Castle built on a height, 
 
 Up in the day and down in the night, 
 Builded down in the Shepherd's Shaw, 
 It shall stand for aye and nerer fa'." 
 
 George Tate, in Hist, of Ber. Nat. Club., iv. p. 225 (1861) ; W. 
 W. Tomlinson's Guide to Northumberland, p. 357 (1888). 
 
 (4) " Callaly Castle stands on a height, 
 
 Up i' the day an' doon i' the night ; 
 If ye build it on the Shepherd's Shaw, 
 There it'll stand and never fa'." 
 
 D. D. Dixon's Vale of Wldttingham, p. 32 (1887). 
 
 (5) " Callaly Ha's up on a heet, 
 
 Up i' the day, an' doon i' the neet, 
 If ye beeld it down yon Shanter Shaw, 
 There it'll stand, an' nivver fa'." 
 
 L., on the authority of his grandfather and grandmother, Alnwick 
 and County Gazette, July 5, 1890. 
 
 (6) " Callaly Castle stands on the height, 
 
 Up by day and down by night, 
 
 Set it down by the Shepherd's haugh, 
 
 There it shall stand and never fa'." 
 
 Version at the castle, 1890. 
 
border sketcries and folklore. 355 
 
 Callaly Pot Boiling. 
 
 When the " Callaly pot is boiling " it indicates bad weather. 
 A mist in a ferment rises straight up from the ravine between 
 the Castle Hill and Lorbottle Moor, and clings to the top of the 
 hill. This is a sure sign of rain, both as seen from Biddleston 
 on the west and Shawdon on the east. The " Callaly pot" was 
 boiled by the Clavering owners, who were a Catholic family, to 
 provide a dinner for tho poor people who on Sunday and 
 holidays attended the services at tho chapel attached to the 
 mansion. The " Haggerstone kail pot," of similar import, 
 has already been noticed. Both are things of the past, but the 
 mist still towers up on Calhtly Hill in damp weather, an un- 
 failing barometer. 
 
 Hob Thrush's Mills. 
 
 Hob Thrush's Mill Nick is a deep fissure with deep pot-holes 
 and waterfalls in Callaly Crags, near Callaly Castle, worn out 
 in the sandstone by the continuous action of the flooded waters 
 of a streamlet originating in the eastern quarter of Lorbottle 
 Moor. The pot-holes in the rocky water-course aro Kobin 
 Goodfellow's or Hob Thrush's Mills, wherein he grinds his 
 visionary grain. Tho mills are set agoing by spates, which 
 bring down stones that rattle in the pot-holes, like the grinding 
 gear of a mill set in motion. Another haunt of this sprite, who 
 was a sort of Brownie, was at Holy Island, in Hob Thrush 
 Island (now St. Cuthbert Island) , where St. Cuthbert frightened 
 him, and got tho whole island to himself, name inclusive. Hob 
 is very susceptible of an affront, as we are informed by Mr. 
 Henderson in his Folklore of the Northern Counties, see p. 264. 
 He was fond of seaside caverns. The oldest mention of him is 
 perhaps containod in tho following quotation from HalliwelPs 
 
356 THE DENHAM TEACTS. 
 
 Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words, i. p. 453. Hob- 
 Thrush, a goblin or spirit generally coupled with Eobin Good- 
 fellow. See Cotgrave, in v. Loup-garou ; Tarlton, p. 55. The 
 millipes is called the Hob-thrush louse. 
 
 " If lie be no Hob-thrush, nor no Eobin Goodfellow, I could find 
 with all my heart to sip up a sillybub with him." — Two Lancashire 
 Lovers, 1640, p. 222. 
 
 There is a Hob's Flow near Oakenshaw Burn and Caplestone 
 Edge, in the dreary swampy solitudes close on the Border line 
 between England and Scotland. — J. H., in Hist. Ber. Nat. Club, 
 vol. xiii. p. 52. 
 
 Eowhope Wedding. [In Kidland.] 
 
 A tradition of the " Eowhope Wedding " still lingers in the 
 memories of several of the residents of the Vale of the Coquet. 
 This wedding took place about the year 1840, when James 
 Hornsby and Mary Telford were married at Alwinton Church. 
 There was a race for the " Kail," when sixteen horsemen rode 
 for the prize, Eowhope being seven miles from Alwinton Church, 
 far among the Cheviots, at the very foot of the Windy Gyle. 
 The number of guests invited to celebrate the wedding was so 
 great that the little house at Eowhope was filled to the door, 
 which gave rise to the local saying, whenever there was a 
 throng anywhere, that it was "like the Rowhope weddin' — 
 strampin' ither's taes, an' rivin' ither's claes." — D. D. Dixon's 
 Tractate on Old Wedding Customs in Upper Coquetdale and 
 Alndale, 1888, p. 8. 
 
 Elsdon. 
 
 An " Elsdon Feast," according to a native, is " Curlew Eo-ws 
 and Heather Broth." Mr. W. W. Tomlinson, in his Guide to 
 
B011DER SKETCHES AND FOLKLORE. 357 
 
 Northumberland, p. 306, says the village is popularly called 
 " Cold Elsdon." Whatever it may be in winter, it has a 
 cheerful aspect in autumn, being outwardly surrounded by a 
 background of hills, but there is a cleugh behind its famous 
 " Moat," down which a wind from the moorlands must sweep 
 with great force. One of its rectors, the Rev. Charles Dodgson, 
 could not endure its winter temperature. " I lay in the par- 
 lour," he wrote, " between two beds, to keep me from being 
 frozen to death, for, as we keep open house, the winds enter 
 from every quarter, and are apt to creep into bed to one." The 
 Hexham poet, George Chatt, thus bedittles this entertainment 
 for visitors by quoting the country proverb : 
 
 " An' heather broth an' curlew eggs, 
 Ye'll get for supper there." 
 
 The people of Eedesdale, of which this is the capital, are as 
 kind-hearted and hospitable as a visitor can desire, and there 
 is no lack of what the old Scotch people called " creature 
 comforts." Experto crede. — J. H. 
 
 The Heather Chieftain. 
 
 Col. John Blenkinsopp Coulson, of Blenkinsopp Hall, was 
 called the " Heather Chieftain," from having ridden to Morpeth 
 at the head of the voters of South Tynedale, during the fiercely 
 contested election of 1826, with a sprig of heather in his hat. 
 He died in 1863. 
 
 Houtck IIoi.k. Lowick Weather Wisdom. 
 
 1. At Lowick, if the wind in summer is in " Howick Hole," 
 the people expect thunder. 
 
 2. When LJluuk-heddon Hill, one of the Kyloc range, looks 
 
358 THE DENHAM TKACTS. 
 
 as if it had approached Lowick, and the seams and depression 
 on its face become vivid, rain is certain. 
 
 3. A Norham Feast wind is very hurtful 'in September for 
 shaking corn. The feast is about the equinox. 
 
 Whittingham Place Khymes. 
 
 Eslington for bonnie lasses, 
 
 Callaly for craws ; 
 Whittingham for white bread, 
 
 Thrunton for Faws. 
 
 These are places on the Alne. — Faws'= Gypsies. 
 
 Whittingham Fair. 
 
 Are you going to Whittingham Fair ? 
 
 Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme ; 
 Remember me to one who lives there, 
 
 For once she was a true love of mine. 
 
 Tell her to make me a cambric shirt, 
 
 Parsley, &c* 
 
 Without any seam or needle work, 
 
 For once, &c* 
 
 Teli her to wash it in yonder well, 
 
 Parsley, &c. 
 
 Where never spring water or rain ever fell, 
 
 For once, &c. 
 
 Tell her to dry it on yonder thorn, 
 
 Parsley, <5a\ 
 
 Which never bore blossom since Adam was bom, 
 
 For once, &c. 
 
 * In the original these are ^ivcu in full. 
 
BORDER SKETCHES AND FOLKLORE. 359 
 
 Now he has asked me questions three, 
 
 Parsley, &c. 
 
 I hope he will answer as many for me, 
 
 For once he was, &c. 
 
 Tell him to find me an acre of land, 
 
 Parsley, &c. 
 
 Betwixt the salt water and the sea-sand, 
 
 For once, &c. 
 
 Tell him to plough it with a ram's horn, 
 
 Parsley, &c. 
 
 And sow it all oyer with one pepper corn, 
 
 For once, &c, 
 
 Tell him to reap it with a sickle of leather, 
 
 Parsley, &c. 
 
 And bind it up with a peacock's feather, 
 
 For once, &c. 
 
 When he has done and finished his work, 
 
 Parsley, &c. 
 
 tell him to come and he'll have his shirt, 
 
 For once, &o. 
 
 D. D. Dixon's Tractate on The Vale of Whittingham, 
 Newcastle-upon Tyne, 1887. 
 
 " To Cuthbert, Car, and Oollingwood, to Shaftoe and to Hall, 
 To every gallant generous heart that for King James did fall." 
 
 Apparently a Jacobite toast, preserved among Sir Walter 
 Scott's Memoranda (Lockhart J s Life of Sir Walter Scott, royal 
 8vo, p. 731), not correctly taken down. George Oollingwood of 
 of Eslington, a descendant of Sir Cuthbert Oollingwood, Captain 
 John Shaftoe, Robert Shaftoe of Bavingtou and his son, and John 
 
3G0 THE DENHAM TRACTS. 
 
 Hall of Otterburn, were participators in the " rising " of 
 1715-6. I do not remember any Carrs or Cutherts. — J. H. 
 
 " Tinmouth was Tinmouth wlien Shiels* was nyen, 
 An' Tynemouth '11 be Tynemouth when Shields is gyen." 
 
 A Guide to Tynemouth, p. 42. 
 
 The Four Quarters of the Globe. 
 
 The cabin boy's "fower quarters o J the globe" were: "Roosha, 
 Proosha, Memel, and Shiels." — Ibid. 
 
 It is said that the Northumbrian salutation is, " What '\\ you 
 hev?" and the Durham greeting, "What J ll you stand." 
 
 Jarrow (Co. Ddrham). 
 
 " There was once an awd wife at Jarra, 
 
 An' she had nowt better t' dee, 
 
 So she put her awd man in a barra, 
 
 An' who-o-rl'd him ower the quay." — Ibid. 
 
 Rimside Black Sow. 
 
 Rimside Black Bow is a large sandstone block on Rimside 
 Hill, remarkably like the effigy of the animal it is supposed to 
 represent. 
 
 Signs of the Weather. 
 
 At Hauxley, on the Northumbrian coast south from Wark- 
 worth, bad weather is portended when the white wall of Alnwick 
 Park, which lies at a considerable distance northwards, is very 
 distinct to the view. The sounds of the sea foretell bad weather 
 a night or two before, and the blast comes out of the direction 
 
 * North Shields. 
 
BORDER SKETCHES AND FOLKLORE. 361 
 
 whence the noise arises, although when first heard the wind 
 may not be in that quarter. 
 
 " Mar Fire," or " Sea Mare," is spoken of by the Hauxley 
 fishermen. On some nights there is a " vast o' fire " of this 
 sort before bad weather. There are also what are called by 
 them "greasy spots," or smooth-looking spaces, dappling the 
 brine all over. — M. H. Dand. 
 
 When the water breaks white between the land and Holy 
 Island it is the sign of a blast from the east. — Ibid. 
 
 " From Mountain to Mile." 
 Spoken of two farm places near Glanton. 
 
 Debdon Dirt. 
 
 Tlio coal at Debdon Colliery, which adjoins Rimside Moor, 
 abovo Rothbury, was so inferior that it was stigmatised as 
 " Debdon Dirt." It is now disused. 
 
 Scotland. 
 
 The lordship of Wark, in Tynedale, was held by the Kings of 
 Scotland for a long period as a fief from the English Kings till 
 Edward I. made the disrupture. There are still portions of the 
 banks of the Tyne called Scotland, e.g. below Haydon Bridge, 
 at Allerwash. On the north side of South Tyne England is 
 pointed out, and Scotland on the south of the river, as still 
 preserving the distinction. 
 
 The IIkiuIiANDs. 
 
 The Highlands at Wooler is often the name given to tho 
 Cheviot raii'T. 
 
362 THE DENHAM TKAOTS. 
 
 Like the Cobbler in the West is the Carter in the East. 
 
 The Cobbler is one of the Arroehar Hills at the head of 
 Loch Long, Argyleshire; Carter Fell is a prominent member of 
 the Cheviot Hills, whence the rivers Reed and Jed arise. 
 
 Cutty Soams. 
 
 Cutty Soams was a coal-pit Bogle, a sort of Brownie, whose 
 disposition was purely mischievous, but he condescended 
 sometimes to do good in an indirect way. He would occa- 
 sionally bounce upon and thrash soundly some unpopular over- 
 man or deputy viewer ; but his special business and delight was 
 to cut the traces or " soams " by which the poor little assistant 
 putters (sometimes girls) used then to be yoked to the wooden 
 trams underground. It was no uncommon tiling in the morn- 
 ing, when the men went down to work, for them to find that 
 Cutty Soams had been busy during the night, and that every 
 pair of rope-traces in the colliery had been cut to pieces. By 
 many he was supposed to be the ghost of one of the poor fellows 
 who had been killed in the pit at one time or other, and who 
 came to warn his old marrows * of some misfortune that was 
 going to happen. At Callington Pit, which was more particu- 
 larly haunted, suspicion fell upon one of the deputies named 
 Nelson, and soon after two men, the under- viewer and the over- 
 man, were precipitated to the bottom of the pit, owing to this 
 man Nelson cutting the rope by which they descended, all but 
 one strand. As a climax to this horrible catastrophe, the pit 
 fired a few days afterwards, and tradition has it that Nelson 
 was killed by the damp. Cutty Soams Colliery, as it had come 
 to be nicknamed, never worked another day. — Monthly Chronicle, 
 1887, pp. 269, 270. 
 
 * l-'ellows. 
 
BORDER SKETCHES AND FOLKLORE. 363 
 
 Shilbottle Blue Bonnet on Blue Cap. 
 
 Of another Goblin, altogether a more sensible and indeed an 
 honest and hard working Bogle, a writer in the Colliery Guardian 
 of May 23rd, 1863, wrote as follows :— 
 
 " The supernatural person in question was no other than a 
 ghostly putter, and his name was Blue-cap. Sometimes the 
 miners would perceive a light-blue flame flicker through the air 
 and settle on a full coal-tub, which immediately moved towards 
 the roily-way as though impelled by the sturdiest sinews in the 
 working. Industrious Blue-cap required, and rightly, to be paid 
 for his services, which he moderately rated as those of an ordi- 
 nary average putter, therefore once a fortnight Blue-cap's wages 
 were left for him in a solitary corner of the mine. If they were 
 a farthing below his due, the indignant Blue-cap would not 
 pocket a stiver ; if they were a farthing above his due, indignant 
 Blue-cap left the surplus revenue where he found it." 
 
 At Shilbottle Colliery, near Alnwick, Blue-cap was better 
 known as Blue Bonnet. — Monthly Chronicle, p. 244. 
 
 The following series has been kindly furnished by Captain 
 It. G. Huggup, Gloster Hill, Warkworth, and consists both of 
 Popular Sayings and Folklore. — J. H. 
 
 " You are like the Piper o' Hexham." 
 
 You are like the Piper o' Hexham ; he had only three tunes. 
 The first was " Lang unkenned " ; the second, " Naebody 
 kenned; " and the third, " He didna' ken hissel." 
 
 This is said to an unmusical person. 
 
 " Onco more round Jarrow Slake, and then I'll be done." 
 
 This was used by a tailor while making a pair of breeches for 
 a very stout gentleman. 
 
364 THE DENHAM TRACTS. 
 
 " That is going round by Newcastle to get to Shields." 
 
 My father often used this saying to express disapproval of the 
 method of doing some work. His aucestors having farmed in 
 the neighbourhood of Bedlington for a long period, I think it is 
 likely that he had picked it up in his early days from some one 
 of his relations. 
 
 " No good ever came out of Howick Hole." 
 
 When a child I have often heard this proverb in Bamborough- 
 shire. I think it refers to the S.E. gales which bring so much 
 wet to this county. 
 
 [This is already entered, but in a different form.] 
 
 " It's all ower [all over] like Jack's weddin" 
 
 I do not know if this is local, but I never heard it beyond the 
 county. 
 
 " Gannin' folks are aye gettin'." 
 
 Those who travel much are always picking something up. 
 " A ganging fit," &c, is the Scots form. 
 
 " What has that to do with the price of coals ? " 
 
 I have often heard this used in North Country ships during 
 an argument on any subject. It means, " You are getting wide 
 of the mark." 
 
 " Yon can make a, kirk or a mill on't for me." 
 
 That is, I have given you my advice, and you won't take it, 
 so it is indifferent to mo what becomes of the project. 
 
BORDER SKETCHES AND FOLKLORE. 365 
 
 " He neither said ' buff ' nor ' stye.' " 
 
 This means, " He had not a word to say," a very common 
 expression. I can offer no suggestion as to its origin. 
 
 Only five years ago I had a cow that took milk-fever after 
 calving. An elderly woman immediately asked if we had been 
 careful to rub a pinch of salt along her back at the moment she 
 calved. 
 
 I have seen a corpse laid out with a small plate of salt placed 
 on the breast, and believe it to be usually done in Northumber- 
 land. 
 
 Seventy years or so ago it was a common practice among the 
 Hauxley fishermen, when shipwrecks had been scarce, to shut 
 up the cat in a cupboard. — M. H. Dand. 
 
 The peasant women believe that the " black and white 
 puddings" made at a pig-killing will certainly burst while 
 boiling if the cook does not, when putting each string of 
 puddings into the pot, mentally dedicate it to some one who is 
 not present. This has nothing to do with the subsequent dis- 
 posal of the delicacy. 
 
 Our peasantry have, or had within my recollection, a curious 
 superstition that if a pig was killed when Ihe moon was waning, 
 the flesh would not take the salt. 
 
 Dr. 0. Schrader, in his Prehistoric Antiquities of the Aryans, 
 speaks of something analogous to this as being of most remote 
 antiquity. — E. G. Huggup. 
 
 Neat's Fire. 
 
 In another communication Mr. Huggup says that his uncle, 
 James Huggup, now deceased, gave him an account of the 
 custom of using Neat's Fire to cure the hoose in cattle, a disease 
 occasioned by worms in the throat. It was used every year in 
 the district on the clayey lands south of the mouth of the 
 
366 THE DENHAM TKACTS. 
 
 Coquet, but long before his time. The farmers came to an 
 arrangement as to the order in which they were to use it. The 
 fire was kindled with some ceremony at a certain farm agreed 
 upon, and the cattle were then shut up in the straw-barn, where 
 the fire was kept up among them for some time ; after which 
 a lighted brand was carried on to the next farm, where prepara- 
 tions had been made for a similar proceeding. If it went out 
 the virtue was gone, and that year would probably be looked 
 forward to with dread of many deaths among the herd. When 
 this clay land was undrained there would be much loss from 
 worms in the throat in cattle, so that there is something to 
 commend itself to a practical farmer in smoking the herd. 
 
 For the process of making " Neat's Fire," or " Need Fire," 
 see Mr. Denham's entry, ubi supra, " Need Fire." 
 
XXI. 
 
 PLANT LORE : A BIOGRAPHY OF BORDER WILD 
 FLOWERS. 
 
 The Ribwort Plantain— Plantago lanceolata, L. 
 
 Grateful to the traveller to leave the dusty pathway near a 
 town, bared by public traffic of every green thing — for the 
 same road stretching away through the less frequented country 
 district; for those strips of verdure, that like the over-fresh- 
 ened margin of a stream, line the wayside on either hand — so 
 clean, so cooling and so grassy, while they lighten his move- 
 ments over their elastic sod, cheer also the spirits, by the 
 variety of their vegetative covering ; for nowhere is there a 
 richer assemblage of country graces, beautiful anywhere, but 
 nowhere more luxuriant and better looking than there, the 
 ground being kept continually fertilized, and but sparingly 
 cropped by flock or herd. There the gaudy dandelion first con- 
 fesses how irresistible is the penetrative influence of opening 
 spring ; there the demure daisy earliest unseals its rosy lips and 
 laughs out in the sunshine ; there the speedwell sparkles — 
 brightest organization of heaven's azure ; and there the 
 buttercups speck like golden studs nature's emerald raiment. 
 
 " Can Imagination boast, 
 Amid his gay creation, hues like these ? " 
 
 These spots are the favourite resort of the Ribwort Plaintain. 
 Youngsters in search of flowers will likely refuse its black and 
 apparently bloomlcss heads, a place among the almost indis- 
 
368 THE DENHAM TRACTS. 
 
 criminate ingredients of the spring posy ; and it is true that its 
 napless sugar-loaf hat looks rather odd and unflowerlike beside 
 the trimmer head-dresses of its more brilliant companions ; yet 
 it cannot be said that amidst them it 
 
 " Like a purple beech among the greens 
 Looks out of place ; " 
 
 for during the period of flowering — they are pretty objects — its 
 circles of pale slender filaments and nodding anthers streaming 
 around a dark centre, like the radiance about a saintly head, 
 and particularly when sensitive to the aerial currents, they look 
 like its feelers agitated by the breeze. The spike arises droop- 
 ingly, black, and tapering to the point; but erects itself as the 
 bloom wears off, and becomes quite cylindrical, and the colour 
 progressively changes to brown, as if not sufficiently imbued 
 with dye to withstand the sunlight ; this being the lighter shade 
 of the interior surface of its fast expanding florets. There is 
 some variety in the size and shape of the heads ; in the broader 
 or narrower foliage ; and in the length and tint of its filaments 
 and stamens. In moist mornings, the last, like those of grass, 
 being easily detached, are sprinkled copiously over the shoes of 
 such as tread the " dewy lawn." The heads sometimes become 
 forked, or multiple ; sometimes entirely converted into leaves, 
 with a new race of stems and heads originating from the centre ; 
 or one leaf or more springs from the typically unclothed stalk. 
 None of these are of modern discovery ; the older botanists 
 knew all that we know of them ; and attempted their classifica- 
 tion under names such as we might apply to them. 
 
 Although the schoolboy may not admit its claims as a flower, 
 yet in his estimation compared with it, what are " roses, 
 
 violets " — 
 
 " But toys 
 For the smaller sort of boys, 
 Or for greener damsels meant ? " 
 
PLANT LOBE. 369 
 
 for from its heads he obtains the weapons of a warfare that 
 mimics " manly " might. Two little heroes challenge each 
 other, and go and select an equal number of the toughest stems 
 of ribwort they can meet with. One then holds out his stem, 
 at which his opponent with another aims a deadly blow to 
 behead it. Whether successful or not, he must in turn submit 
 a stem with a head on it to the risk of the next stroke ; and 
 thus by alternate attempts is the contest continued, until one of 
 them lose all the heads of his flowers, in which case he also 
 loses the fight. Both the game and the weapons are called 
 Kemps. A hemp, as at present in use, is the struggle for the 
 " land end " in the harvest field. 
 
 " 'Twas on the left the harsher jar, 
 Of sickles spoke commencing war, 
 
 And anger mutter'd low ; 
 The soldier saw with jealous glance, 
 The blacksmith's ridge too far advance, 
 
 And held that ridge a foe ; 
 And bore away ; that action soon 
 Like light'ning glanced along the boon, 
 Till all, from side to side, was life, 
 Resentment, bustle, rage and strife, 
 And foot to foot the kempers join." 
 
 Story's Harvest. 
 
 But " kemp," sayeth Verstegan,* is a word of " noble 
 descent ; " and in the olden time signified a champion, or 
 knight skilled in feats of arms. 
 
 " But on did come the kyng of Spayne 
 With kempe3 many a one." 
 
 Ballad of King Estmere. 
 
 In Anglo-Saxon cempa is a soldier, campian to fight ; the Danish 
 * Restitution of Decayed Intelligence, p. 233. 
 
 VOL. II. 2 B 
 
370 THE DENHAM TKACTS. 
 
 kempe is a giant ; the Islandic hamper, a warrior. The Cimbri 
 struck terror into their enemies, not less by their fighting quali- 
 ties than by the name which these had stamped on them, for 
 they were kem.pers, "the bravest of the brave".* The 
 proudest title of the Cid was " the Compeador ; " our kemp or 
 kemper in the Spanish idiom. " Compeador is a term hardly 
 translatable into English, for our word ' champion,' to which it 
 most readily answers, excites little of that proud triumphant 
 feeling which thrills the Spanish bosom at the mention of the 
 ' Compeador.' " Sir James Kempt at Waterloo, and Dr. Van- 
 derkemp, the African missionary, each in their respective fields 
 of honour, vindicated their ancient lineage and name, f The 
 Swedes call Plantago media kampar, from their word kampa, to 
 contend or struggle. Plantago major is sometimes also our 
 " kemps," perhaps the " kemp-seed" of Jamieson. In some parts 
 of Scotland " Soldiers " is the Ribwort's name. In the pit-vil- 
 lages around Newcastle, " Cock-fighters " is the term for the 
 game; modified about Berwick to " Fightee-eocks." In Suffolk 
 it is "Cocks" (Moor); "Fighting-cocks" in Northampton- 
 shire, " many a time have I played at fighting-cocks with them" 
 (C. W. Peach) ; " F'ghting-cocks " in the east of England (Hal- 
 liwell); "Hardheads," in Lancashire (Brockett)4 It does 
 not, however, appear to have been its celebrity in boyish diver- 
 sions that has earned for it the title of " Herba martis," § for 
 it fell under the warrior god's protection for another reason. 
 For " Mizaldus and others, yea almost all astrology-physicians, 
 
 * Percy's Ri-liques of Ancient Poetry, i. p. 373; and Ruddiman 
 Sibbald's Glossary. 
 
 t " Kemp, the surname of a man, that is, in old English, 
 soldier." Ch.imbevlayne's Magna Britannia? Xotitia, p. 162. 
 
 \ The English name has passed over into Ireland : it is " Cocks " 
 in Arniagh ; " Cocks and Hens " in Waterford, 
 
 § Phrysins in J. fianhin's Hist. Plantarvm, in. p 505. 
 
PLANT LORE. 371 
 
 hold this to bo an herb of Mars, because it cures the diseases of 
 the head, which arc under the houses of Mars." " Neither," 
 continues Culpepper, " is there hardly a martial disease but it 
 cures." 
 
 It was once a custom in Berwickshire to practise divination 
 by means of kemps. Two spikes were taken in full bloom, and 
 being bereft of every appearance of blow, they were wrapt in a 
 dock-leaf and put below a stone. One of them represented the 
 lad, the other the lass. They were examined next morning, and 
 if both spikes appeared in blossom, then there was to be " aye 
 love between them twae :" il none, the "course of true love" 
 was not " to run smooth." The appeal, however, generally 
 ended as the parties wished, for since it is the rule in the inflo- 
 rescence of spikes that the florets blow in succession, the being 
 laid beneath a stone would have little influence in retarding 
 their expansion if ready for development. A similar supersti- 
 tion prevails in Northamptonshire: thus Clare in his Shepherd's 
 Calendar, p. 49 : — 
 
 " Now young girls whisper things of love, 
 And from the old dame's hearing move ; 
 Oft making ' love-knots ' in the shade, 
 Of blue-green oat or wheaten blade ; 
 Or, trying simple charms and spells 
 Which rural superstition tells, 
 They pull the little blossom threads, 
 From out the knot-weeds button heads, 
 And put the husk with many a smile, 
 In their white bosoms for a while, — 
 Then if they guess aright, the swain 
 Their love's sweet fancies tries to gain ; 
 'Tis said, that ere it lies an hour, 
 'Twill blossom with a second flower, 
 And from the bosom's handkerchief 
 Bloom as it near had lost a leaf." 
 2 h 2 
 
372 THE DENHAM TEACTS. 
 
 From Miss Baker's Northamptonshire Words and Phrases, i. 
 p. 374, it appears that " knot- weed " in that county is applied 
 indifferently to the three species of knap-weed, Centaurea 
 cyanus, nigra, and scabiosa; all of which agree with ribwort 
 in having hard heads or " knaps," which is Gerard's expression 
 for the compact spike of the ribwort. Following on the knap- 
 weed we can trace the superstition back again to the Borders ; 
 for what is Eobert Story, the Northumbrian bard's " Flower of 
 Love," in Guthrum the Dane, but Centaurea nigra. * Bertha, 
 the Danish maiden, and secretly though vainly attached to him, 
 is the instructress in the English language of Aymund, a Danish 
 prince, wounded and taken prisoner. 
 
 " This plant, of many branches on a stem 
 And each branch crested with a purple gem 
 Which, armed and plumed, like a warrior stands — 
 We call a ' thistle.' This the tenderest hands 
 May grasp, although its shape and colour strike 
 As being to the others not unlike. 
 It has no - name I wot of ; but, above 
 The rest, it should be styled ' The flower of love ; ' 
 For 'tis to it the wondrous spells belong, 
 Which thus some bard has worked into a song. 
 
 " Young Waddie, on a summer's eve, 
 
 The maid he long had wooed, addressed : 
 ' See ! I these flowers of bloom bereave, 
 
 And put them underneath my vest. 
 The first shall bear thy name, 'tis meet; 
 
 The other that of Edith Bain ! 
 And won't the morning, love, be sweet, 
 
 That sees one relic bud again ? ' 
 
 * Story's Poetical Works, 336, 337. 
 
PLANT LORE. 373 
 
 " They parted — as young lovers part, 
 
 With many a last good night and kiss ; 
 And each went home, with lightened heart, 
 
 To dream a dream of love and bliss. 
 Yet her heart was not happy quite ; 
 
 She pondered on these flowerets twain ; 
 And oft the maiden said, that night, 
 
 O 1 which of them will bud again ? 
 
 " Next morning to her cot he hied : 
 
 ' Come, guess on which the bloom's begun ? ' 
 * I nothing care,' she archly cried, 
 
 4 So Edith Bain's be not the one.' 
 He caught her in his arms. ' We meet, 
 
 Life-wedded by this token plain ! 
 And is not love, the morning sweet, 
 
 That sees the relic bud again 7 ' 
 
 " The Maiden, having sung her simple lay, 
 Two flowers selected ; cut the bloom away ; 
 Then bade me place them ' underneath my vest ; ' 
 To represent the two I loved the best. 
 ' I know,' she said, ' the favourite of the twain, 
 But have a doubt that that will bud again.' " 
 
 Nor are these the only mysterious properties of ribwort. It 
 is introduced as a magical herb in a burlesque poem from the 
 Bannatyne MSS., entitled " An interlude of the laying of ane 
 Ghaist," the scene of which is in the vicinity of North Berwick. 
 Thus runs the spell that bound him : — 
 
 " Litill gaist, I conjur the, 
 With lierie and larie, 
 Bayth fra God, and Sanct Marie, 
 First with ane fischis mouth, 
 An syne with ane sowis towth, 
 With ten pertaine tais, 
 And nync knokis of windil strais, 
 
374 THE DENHAM TBACTS. 
 
 With three heids of curie doddy. ' 
 And bid the ghaist turn in a body 
 Then after this conjuratioun, 
 The litill gaist will fall in sonn, 
 And thair efter down lye, 
 Cryand mercy piteously ; 
 Then with your left heil sane, 
 And it will never cum againe, 
 As muckle as a mige amaist." 
 
 The "Curie Doddy" is the head of the ribwort. In Moray- 
 shire it is " Carl-Doddies " ; * in Banff and Aberdeen, " Carl- 
 Dods." It is " Curl-Doddies " in Forfarshire, as I am in- 
 formed by John Nevay, who has introduced it into his " Hymn 
 to the Skylark" (Poems, p. 258) : 
 
 " From yonder field where sits thy mate 
 
 Among Curl-Doddies, clover red and white, 
 
 I saw thee rise, thy soul elate 
 With blest connubial love, 
 
 Blithe warbling up the ethereal dome, 
 
 Eight o'er thy grassy home." 
 
 There are a plurality of plants claimants of the name. In Ber- 
 wickshire and Roxburghshire the Scabiosa succisa and Knautia 
 arvensis are " Curly-Doddies : " and likewise the rising crosier- 
 headed fronds of the male fern ( Lastrea FilLv-mns) ; in Orkney 
 natural clover bears the name ; and Curly Kale in the south of 
 Scotland, f "Dod" is the reedmace (Typha latifolia) in the 
 
 * Dr. Gordon's Flora of Moray, p 6. 
 
 •f In the following passage from "Ane Brash of Wowing, by 
 Clerk " (Sibbald's Chron. of Scottish Poetry, i. p. 370 ; Evergreen, 
 ii. p. 19), it appears to be a synonym for clover : — 
 " Quod he, my claver, my curie dody 
 My hinny-sopps, my sweit possody, 
 Be not owre bowstrous to your billy." 
 
PLANT LORE. 375 
 
 north of England. " Curly" is obvious enough ; but " Carl " 
 may have the masculine import which it had in the old language, 
 and which still remains in such terms as Carl-cat, Carl-crab, Carl- 
 hemp, Carl-tangle. The Irish Caoirle, a club, a reed ; diminu- 
 tive, Caoirlin, also offers itself. Dr. Jamieson thinks " Poddie" 
 signifies bald ; and hence we have the " Angus doddies, " cattle 
 without horns. Then we have " Doddie," frizzled (doideach) in 
 Gaelic ; and also " Dolde " in German, the top of a tree or 
 plant. But the likelihood is that it is the same term as that 
 applied on the Borders to round-topped hills. Thus we have 
 Ilderton Dodd in the Cheviots; Duddo (Dodd, and A.S. hoe, 
 a height) in North Durham , and also in the parish of Stanning- 
 ton ; Doddington and its Dodd Well, Dodd House near Wal- 
 lington, Dodd End in Alston parish, Dodbank near Whitfield, 
 and Doddheap on Reed Water in Northumberland ; Belton 
 Dodd and the Dodd Hill in the Lammermoors ; the Dodd near 
 Hawick, and the Dodburn in Kirkton parish, Roxburghshire, 
 not forgetting the " high Dodhead," and its redoubtable occu- 
 pant of the " Riding Times," " Jamie Telfer." The family 
 name of Dodd and Dodds originated among the Border hills.* 
 We have an old English word dod to lop as a tree, which might 
 be metaphorically applied to cowed cattle, to knob-headed 
 flowers, and smooth hills of the conical form. In this sense it 
 is only the truncated pyramidal heights of South Africa that 
 can correctly be said to be dodded. 
 
 In Fife the bairns make a plaything of the Curly Doddy, 
 saying : 
 
 " Curly Doddy, do ray biddin' 
 Soop my house and shool my midden ". f 
 
 • Brockie's Family Xaims of the Folks of Shields, p. 41. 
 t Chamber*' Popular Rhymes, p. i'i. 
 
376 THE DENHAM TEACTS. 
 
 Those of Berwickshire form of the heads of Scabiosa succisa a 
 horologe of a primitive sort. The head is twisted round a few 
 times, and then left to recover its position. The number of 
 circumvolutions is the true index to the time of day. 
 
 Moreover, this kind of plantain, like others of the genus, is 
 
 " Full of great -virtues, and for medicine good." 
 
 As a healing herb it ranks with P. major, which as an applica- 
 tion " to stop the bleeding of wounds and to consolidate their 
 lips," is renowned in Berwickshire as the " Healin' Leaf," or 
 " Healin' Blade." The Highlanders and Irish call the ribwort 
 Slan-lus, i.e. healing-herb, and apply it bruised to fresh 
 wounds.* The Irish reapers greatly vaunt its merits for 
 sickle-hurts. It is thus Shenstone's 
 
 " Plantain ribb'd, that heals the reaper's wound." 
 
 In Ayrshire P. major is thus employed; in Galloway it is 
 P. lanceolate.. From its being a specific against poison, Shake- 
 speare's "plantain leaf" appears to have been the greater 
 plantain ; but Dr. Drummond makes it the ribwort. 
 
 Rom " Your plantain leaf is excellent tor that." 
 Ben. " For what, I pray thee ? " 
 Rom. " For your broken shin." I 
 
 " When this and other herbs were in repute as vulneraries, the 
 principles which should regulate the treatment of wounds were 
 
 * Another Gaelic name equivalent to the above is Lus-an-t- 
 slanuehaidh. 
 
 ■f In Yorkshire, as I am informed, it is believed that the 
 plantain leaf may be beneficially applied fresh to any hurt in the leg. 
 
PLANT LORE. 377 
 
 Uttle understood. The supposed virtues of the herb, however, 
 produced this good effect ; it was firmly bound over the cut so 
 that the raw edges came in contact, adhesion followed, and the 
 wound healed nearly as well as though the plant had not been 
 used. The real secret of the cure was the application of the lips 
 of the wound to each other ; but this was not understood, and 
 the supposed vulnerary bore off the credit." * The applica- 
 tion of plantain to check the flow of blood is mentioned by both 
 Dioscorides and Pliny, and subsequent herborists only copy 
 what they promulgated. 
 
 Dioscorides recommended his plaintain (arnoglossos) for 
 hydrophobia ; and in the last century we find the same thing 
 reported of ribwort as a novelty : " Eibworth, or rib-grass, was 
 given at Roscrea in Ireland in 1 796 with success ; a table- 
 spoonful of the juice (the quantity given to a dog) every 
 morning and evening for a week, and a poultice of the bruised 
 rib-grass applied to the wound until it healed. This saved the 
 life and cured one person out of seven who were bit by a mad 
 terrier; all the others died although they had immediate 
 recourse to sea-bathing." f 
 
 P. lanceolata was cultivated more frequently formerly than 
 at present, combined with a grass crop. It affords an early bite, 
 but is not much relished by stock. " On poorer and drier soils 
 it is said to answer well for sheep, being much used on the hills 
 in Wales, where its roots spread and occasion a degree of 
 fertility in districts which would otherwise be little better than 
 bare rock." " Botanists," continues the writer of British 
 Husbandry, i. p. 512, "differ in their estimation of its qualities, 
 for by some it is said to be injurious to cows, and by others it is 
 asserted that the richness of the milk in the celebrated dairies of 
 
 * Drummond's First Steps to Botany, p. 246. 
 f Daniol's Rural Sports, i. p. 177. 
 
378 THE DENHAM TEACTS. 
 
 the Alps is attributable to this grass and the common lady's 
 mantle, or Alchemilla vulgaris. When sown along with 
 clover* it is also said to prevent cattle from being hoven." 
 However, the " Adelgras " or " Riz," esteemed the second 
 best milk-producing Alpine plant, in the wild-hay of the Alps 
 (Meum mutellina being the first) is a different species, Plantago 
 alpina. It grows at 6,000 feet and upwards, f By experi- 
 ment the composition of 100 parts of the ash of Plantago 
 lanceolata collected on the Bradford clay, a calcareous loam, 
 consisted of 2 - 37 silica, 7 - 08 phosphoric acid, 6*11 sulphuric 
 acid, 1440 carbonic acid, 19"10 lime, 351 magnesia, 090 
 peroxide of iron, 33-26 potash, 4 - 53 chloride of potassium, 8 - 80, 
 chloride of sodium. J 
 
 The Icelanders, who call P. lanceolata, " Selegrese," use it 
 for food. § 
 
 Ribwort is eagerly sought after for its pollen by the hive- 
 bees, in some localities, about the 19th of July. The bees pull 
 down the long filaments with their forelegs, pass the anthers 
 between their mandibles, by which means the pollen is scattered 
 upon the face and body, whence it is speedily transferred to 
 the hinder legs. They wheel round the flower with wonderful 
 celerity, and then hasten on. The pollen thus collected is of a 
 pale yellow or whitish tint. 
 
 I once met with a small oblong gall on the stalks from which 
 I obtained a small black weevil of a corresponding shape, 
 Mecinus semieylindricus. This, I believe, is the first time its 
 
 * Cheshire Report, p. 181. 
 
 \ Berlepsch on the Alps ; or Sketches of Life and Nature in the 
 Mountains, p. 350. 
 
 | J. T. Way and G. H. Ogston in Journal of Royal l Agric. 
 Soc, xi. p. 537. 
 
 § Van Trail's Letters on Iceland, p. 108. 
 
PLANT LORE. 379 
 
 transformation has been noted. The upper surface of the leaves 
 of both this and P. major are mined by the maggots of a small 
 two-winged fly, apparently, for they did not hatch with me, 
 Phytomyza nigricornis of Macquart, the same species that is so 
 abundant in the leaves of sow-thistles and Cinerarias. The 
 larva of a small moth, Gracilaria tringipennella of Zeller, mines 
 the upper surface of the leaves of the P. lanceolata ; one brood 
 begins to feed in October, changing to pupa in May ; the other 
 brood feeds up in June and July. * The caterpillars of three 
 butterflies, Melitcea Cinxia, M. Athalia and Steropes Paniscus 
 also feed on the leaves ; and those of various other Lepidoptera 
 select by preference this and other plantains, t 
 
 That distinguished scholar, the late Dr. Adams of Banchory 
 (in the Appendix to Murray's Northern Flora), considered that 
 P. lanceolata was one of the species of Arnoglossos mentioned 
 by Dioscorides, P. major being the other ; and of this opinion 
 also was William Turner, the early English botanist; both 
 doubtless following Macer. This Macer, not the iEmilius 
 Macer quoted by Ovid, but it is said Odo, or Odobonus, a 
 physician of later times in the guise of his name {%), is the 
 first to bring forward, in his leonine verses, the specific name 
 lanceolata, which alludes to the lance-shaped form of the 
 leaves : — 
 
 " Altera vero minor, quam vulgo lanccolatam 
 Dicunt, quod foliis, ut lancea, surgat acutis." 
 
 Lanceolata continued to be the officinal term, while Lanceola 
 became the common one, and exists to the present clay as the 
 Lanceole of the French, and the Italian Lancivola. The lesser 
 plantains, from the five ribs in the leaf, were called Pentaneuros 
 
 * Stainton's Tineimt, p. 198. 
 
 f Stainton's Manual of British Butterflies and Moths. 
 
 \ Pultoney's Sketches, i. p. 32. 
 
380 THE DENHAM TRACTS. 
 
 or Quinquinervia, to distinguish them from P. major, which 
 " propt by her seven nerves," was the Heptapleuros or Septi- 
 nervia. It is doubtful whether the English name Rib-wort or 
 Rib-grass is modelled on this. Coles, indeed, in the Art of 
 Simpling, London, 1657, p. 30, says, " Plantane is called Rib- 
 wort because every leafe hath five strings somewhat like ribs." 
 In Somner's Anglo-Saxon Lexicon Ribbe is rendered Cyno- 
 glossus, which is an old alias of the plantain. William Turner, 
 Names of Herbes, London, 1548, thus notices it : " Plantago 
 is called in Greke Arnoglossus. There are two sorts of Planta- 
 ginis; the one is called in Englishe alone Plantain or waybread 
 or great waybread. The other is called Rybwurte or Rybe- 
 grass, and of some Herbaries Lanceolata." In the second part 
 of his Herball, he says it was called " in many places rybgrasse ; " 
 whence it appears that the name had been well established in 
 his time. John Bauhin accounts for the name in saying that 
 the Germans called it Rosripp, from the resemblance of the leaf 
 to a horse-rib ; and by a similar analogy the Dutch name is 
 Hontsribbe, i.e. Dog-rib. In Donegal it is called RuppU-grass ; 
 Ripple-grass in Ettrick Forest and Galloway ; and Riplin-grass 
 in Lanarkshire ; manifest corruptions of Rib grass. The Welsh 
 have for it a superfluity of unpronounceable names. They call 
 it Llyriad Llwynhidydd, Llwyn y neidr, Traeturiad y bugeilydd, 
 Ysgelynllys, Astyllenlys, Pennau'r gioyr. The last may represent 
 our " Curly- Doddy ; " from pennaicr, an ornament worn on 
 the head, and gwyr, crooked, or it may be a contraction for 
 gwyran, hay, reed, grass. They call it and P. major, Sowdl 
 Crist, Christ's heel. 
 
 There are few spots in Great Britain where the ribwort does 
 not prevail. Dr. Macgillivray noticed it on the shores of 
 Harris*; it, as well as a small variety, is common in Shet- 
 
 * Prize Essays and Trans. Highland Soc, vii. p, 104. 
 
PLANT LORE. 381 
 
 land.* Mr. H. C. Watson found it on the north coast of 
 Caithness and Sutherland, and observed it at the height of five 
 hundred yards in Forfarshire, t Its range in Yorkshire is 
 up to seven hundred yards, ascending to near the peaks of the 
 highest hills. \ It is widely diffused throughout Europe ; 
 Pallas found Plantago media and P. lanceolata on the peninsula 
 of Kerteh, near Arabat, on the Sea of Azof.§ A variety of 
 it, P. Azorica, Hochst., grows in the Azores. || It crosses 
 the Atlantic, and is one of the plants in North America that 
 descend to the sea-coast in the arctic zone. 1T The European 
 plantains, or species similar to them, occur also at Sitka, on the 
 western coast of America, in 57° north latitude, where we find a 
 vegetation corresponding with that of western Europe under the 
 same parallels. ** 
 
 * Edmonston's Flora, p. 17. 
 
 t Murray's Northern Flora, p. 97. 
 
 t Baker's North Yorkshire, p. 271. 
 
 § Travels, ii. p, 271. 
 
 || Ray Society Reports and Papers on Botany, 1849, p. 389. 
 
 f Meyen's Geography of Plants, p. 220. 
 
 •* Ibid., p. 203. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 [Niimcs of tomtit or other places, when not accompanied by a descriptive 
 note, are place-names which occur in rhymes or proverbs.] 
 
 Adder stones, 43 
 
 Agnes (St.) Day, 282 283 
 
 Alhuldco, a class of spirits, 79 
 
 All Fool's Day, 31 
 
 All Soul's Day, 26 
 
 Allanbank, Berwickshire, apparition 
 at, 178 
 
 Alls, the four, popular saying, 37 
 
 Alnwick, barring out at, 346 
 
 coban tree at, 227 
 
 games at, 351 
 
 leaping the well, 40 
 
 Alwinton, sacred well at, 156 
 
 Amber bead, worn as amulet, 83 
 
 Amulet, amber bead, 83 
 
 crooked sixpence, 72 
 
 Anderson Place, Newcastle, 61 
 
 Animal sacrifice at Christian burials, 
 20-21 
 
 Animals, living, applied to the mouth 
 to suck out the evil spirit, 293 
 
 Apparitions, 163-167 
 
 of Margaret Selby, 260- 
 
 253 
 
 Applety pie, rhyme, 36 
 
 Apron full of stones at Hedgley, 216 
 
 Arrnn Isles, beliefs of, 210 
 
 Arrows, elf, 30 
 
 Arthur (King), legends of, 125-129 
 
 Arthur's Seat, near Edinburgh, 130 
 
 Arvil dinners, 39 
 
 Ash, seed of, used to cure ear ache, 294 
 
 Ash, mountain, witchwood 32H 
 
 ABh-keys, preservative against witch- 
 craft, 30 
 
 Ashlcaf charms, 70-71 
 
 divination by, 282 
 
 Assize, maiden, and white gloves, 66 
 
 Asthma, amber Ijc:u1 worn as cure for, 
 83 
 
 Avon, abode of a spirit. 12 
 
 Babes in the wood, song, 27-28 
 Bachelors, 45 
 Bad-handed, 274 
 Baking custom, 45 
 Ball-beggars, a class of spirits, 78 
 Ball playing at Easter, 32 
 Ball-playing rhyme, 351 
 Ballads, 51 
 
 Balloon, alarm of peasants at, 276 
 Bamborongh, fairy treasures at, 146 
 Bamborough Castle legend, 331 
 Banshee superstition, 79, 187 
 Barring out, 6-8 
 
 at Newcastle, 344-346 
 
 Bargaining rhyme, 75 
 
 Baron, title of, used in the north, 1«5 
 
 Barguests, a class of spirits, 77 
 
 Barrasford, standing stones at, 217 
 
 Basuto custom, 131 
 
 Bathing rhyme, 18 
 
 Battling stones, 69 
 
 for weaving, 246 
 
 Bay, oil de, cure for fairy, 141 
 
 Beamish, king's sunt at, 130 
 
 Beans at funerals, 37 
 
 Beatmont, a measure containing a 
 
 quarter of a peck, 303 
 Beaumont River, abode of fairies, 144 
 Bede (St.), sacred well of, 156 
 Bees, witch in shape of, 299, 319 
 
 bring luck, 213 
 
 warned of owner's death, 213 
 
 Bell horses, 74 
 
 Bellasay, coach horses, in nursery 
 
 rhyme, 69 
 Bellistcr, the grey man of, 183-1*7 
 
 Castle, 'lSX-is-.i 
 
 Bells of Brinkburn, 132-133, 134 
 Beltane, 92 
 
 Belts, to preserve from fairies, 140 
 Benton, sacred well at. 156 
 
384 
 
 1NDKX. 
 
 Berwickshire customs, 348 
 
 Herrit's dyke, 34 
 
 Betty Martin, proverbial saying, 17 
 Bingfield, sacred well at, 155 
 Birthday rhymes, 102 
 Birtley, devil's stone at, 2 1 6 
 
 sacred well at, 1 55, 341 
 
 sacred fire at, 342 
 
 witches of, 333 
 
 " Black and white is my delight " 
 
 rhyme, 53 
 Black bugs, a class of spirits, 78 
 Black cats, lucky for spinsters, 73 
 Black dogs, a class of spirits, 77 
 Black hair and red beard, objections 
 
 to, 24 
 Black man, a class of spirits, 79 
 Black object, gift of, to the devil, 69 
 Black wool used in folk medicine, 294 
 Blackluggie, a small vessel made of 
 
 staves, 82 
 Blane's, St., seat, 131 
 Blankets, superstition concerning, 48 
 Blenkinsop family, tradition of, 185- 
 
 187 
 Blindness, 48 
 
 Blood at the nose, sign of death, 272 
 Blood of witch, drawn by pricking, 
 
 86, 317, 319, 324, 338 
 Bloody bones, a class of spirits, 77 
 Bloody stones, 60 
 Blue cap, a goblin, 363 
 Bodach Gartin, an ancestral spirit, 
 
 188 
 Boggarts, a class of spirits, 78 
 Boggleboes, a class of spirits, 79 
 Boggles, a class of spirit, 77 
 
 place names derived from, 
 
 77 
 
 Boggy-boes, a class of spirits, 77 
 Bogies, a class of spirits, 79, 86 
 Bogle-houses, Lowick Forest, 278 
 Boguests, a class of spirits, 78 
 Bollets, a class of spirits, 79 
 Bolls, a class of spirits, 78 
 Bomen, a class of spirits, 78 
 Bone of giant cow at Mulgrave 
 
 Castle, 29 
 Bonelesses, a class of spirits, 78 
 Bonfires, midsumtrer, 342 
 " Bonny lass, canny lass, will ta be 
 
 mine," rhyme, 53 
 Books, notes of possession in, 339 
 
 rhymes, 18 
 
 Border warfare, 238-239 
 Borewell, near Bingfield, 155 
 Borran, cry of the Irish fairies, 84 
 
 Bosworth man, name for " knave " in 
 cards, 38 
 
 Bowes, Yorkshire, arvel dinner at, 40 
 
 corpse usages at, 73 
 
 need fire at, 50 
 
 Bows and arrows, 46 
 
 Boy-bishop, 7 
 
 Brag, a sprite, 78, 159, 161 
 
 Brandy ball, game of, 351 
 
 Bread-making custom. 45 
 
 Breaknecks, a class of spirits, 77 
 
 Brechau (Dudley), ghost of, 165 
 
 Brehou, stone chair of the, 131 
 
 " Brenky my nutty cock," game rhyme, 
 53 
 ~Bride-cake, divination by, 281 
 
 Bridle, enchanted, need by witches, 
 301, 304, 307 
 
 Brimstone pan, 49 
 
 Brinkburn, bells of, 132, 133 
 
 fairies at, 143 
 
 legend of, 121-124, 257- 
 
 265 
 
 British camp, road to, attributed to the 
 fairies, 149 
 
 earthwork near GunnasLon, 203 
 
 Bromley Lake, Northumberland, buried 
 
 treasure in, 254 
 Brown man of the moor, ghost story, 
 
 79 
 Brownies, a class of spirits, 77 
 
 — ■ place names derived from, 
 
 77 
 Brown-men, a class of spirits, 79 
 Buckies, a class of spirits, 78 
 Bugbears, a class of spirits, 77 
 Buggaboes, a class of spirits, 78 
 Bugs, a class of spirits, 78 
 Building legend, 243-244, 353 
 Bulmer stone, Darlington, 18 
 Burial, beans used at, 37 
 
 virgin garlands at, 33 
 
 on north side of churches, 
 
 38 
 
 at cross roads, 63-64 
 
 customs, 20-21 
 
 Butchers as jurymen, objected to, 
 
 66 
 Bute, dreaming tree in, 286 
 Butter, fairy, 30, 111, 13S 
 Butterfly, red, killing of, 325 
 Button rhyme, 46 
 Bygoms, a class of spirits, 78 
 Buzz, a saying indicating witchcraft, 
 85-86 
 
 Caddies, a class of spirits, 78 
 
INDEX. 
 
 385 
 
 Cairn-a-vain, a pile of stones, 210 
 
 Cakes, fairy, 30, 113 
 
 Calcars, a class of spirits, 77 
 
 Calgarth skull, 19 
 
 Callaley, camp on Castle Hill, 242 
 
 rhymes, 352-355 
 
 legend of, 243 
 
 Callan mountains, 211 
 
 Cambuskenneth Abbey, bells of, 133 
 
 Candle bark, domestic utensil, 32 
 
 Capon trees, 226-234 
 
 Darling Sunday, 282 
 
 Cat, shut up at shipwrecks, 365 
 
 Cats and corpses, 74 
 
 Cats, black, rhymes, 73 
 
 Cattle, cure for bewitched, 68 
 
 Cattle disease, 66 ; charm for, 50 
 
 Cauldron, fairy, 30, 112 
 
 Cavern legends, 217-220 
 
 Celts, stone implements, known as 
 
 holystones, 44 
 Centaurs, a class of spirits, 77 
 Changeling, fairy, 78, 137, 138 
 Chapbook legend, 45 
 Chappie, a family apparition, 177 
 Charm prayers, 11-13 
 Charms, 70-71, 291 
 
 written, 103-106 
 
 Chase, rhymes and proverbs on, 1C7- 
 
 109 
 Cheese, digestive powers of, 2 1 5 
 Cheese, baby's, divination by, 281 
 Cheese, eating of, by witch, 301, 302 
 Cheese-well at Minchmuir, 152 
 Chcrtsey, devil's stone near, 202 
 Cheshire, customs of, 7 
 Chests, oak, for keeping flour, etc., 
 
 97 
 Children, future life betoken by first 
 
 month, 75 
 Child's first visit, customs at, 25 
 Chillingham, Hnrlstone at, 217 
 Chirton, near North Shields, haunted 
 
 by an apparition in silk, 177 
 Chittafaces, a class of spirits, 79 
 Chollerton, sacred wells at, 1 55 
 Christening custom, 42 
 Christmas observances, 25-26 
 
 ■ rhymes, 37, 90-96 
 
 — Bay, ghosts not seen on, 76, 
 
 77,91 
 Church, chancel, funeral feasts set 
 
 forth in, 40 
 
 clock, custom, 50 ; omen, 51 
 
 cold never taken nt, 72 
 
 • marriage custom, 1 1 
 
 ■ porch, divination in, 284 
 
 vol. n. 2 c 
 
 Church dancing in, at Christmas, 95 
 north side, bnrials on, 38 ; west 
 
 side, antipathy to, 38 
 Churching of women after childbirth, 
 
 23 
 Churchyard, visit to, for divination, 
 
 278 
 Churning, witchcraft in, 326 
 Clabbernapjiers, a cla«s of spirits, 79 
 Cleveland, local rhyme, 1 4 
 Clonfert Mulloe, Queen's County, 
 
 stone chair at, 131 
 Clothes changed inside out to avoid the 
 
 fairies, 8S 
 Clothes, home spun, 69 
 Clover, four- necked, preventive against 
 
 fairies, 142 
 Cluricauns, a class of spirit", 79 
 Coach, apparition of, a sign of death, 
 
 270 
 Coban trees, 226-234, 2*6 
 Cock, crowing of, at night, prognosti- 
 cation of death, -'71 
 Cockles, harbingers of bad weather, 21 
 Cocklety bread, rhyme, 36 
 Cock's stride, 99 
 Coffin, stone, at Ncwminster, legend 
 
 connected with, 2 1 7 
 Coldingham Abbey, bells of, 133 
 Collup Monday, .'Mil 
 Colpixy heads! 30, 111, 113 
 Colt-pixies, a class of ppirits, 7« 
 Conune's tomb. Callan Mountain. 210 
 Coniscliffc (High), near Darlington, 
 
 burials nt, 3x 
 
 murria^n custom, 11 
 
 Contempt, to bit" the glove or nail, a 
 
 sign of, Oil 
 Contract, ancient rhyme to accompany, 
 
 7li 
 Cor. the giant, 29 
 Corbie's stone. 221 
 CorbrUige, tradition concerning, 62 
 Cork, Karl of, name for "jkc of 
 
 diamonds," US 
 Cornwall, holed stones in, 265-266 
 Corpse, exposure of, at the funeral 
 
 feast, 39 
 
 usages, 73 
 
 Corpse lights, a class of spirits, 79 
 Coupland Castle, white lady at, 167 
 Covin trees, 226-231, 2*7 
 Cow-milking superstition, S3 
 Cowics, a class of spirits, 79 
 Cows, holy stone used to protect, 43 
 Cradle Knowcs, the abode of fairies, 
 
 148 
 
386 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Cradle, not sold under distraint, 40 
 Cradle rocking superstition, 49 
 Cross roads, burial at, 63-64 
 Cuckoo, first hearing of, 6 
 Cuddie's cove, 163 
 Cummer, a gossip, 82 
 Cumberland, customs of, 7, 8, 14, 91 
 divination practices in, 
 
 291 
 Cups, fairy, 30,112 
 Curing stones, 223-225 
 Curie doddy, the ribwort, 374-376 
 Curse of Scotland, name for " nine of 
 
 diamonds," 38 
 Cursingwell at Ffynnon Elian, 153 
 Curwen's card, name for " knave of 
 
 clubs," 38 
 Cushions, midsummer, 1 
 Cnthbert (St.), tradition of, 163 
 Cutties, a class of spirits, 80 
 Cutty soams, 362 
 
 Dancing in churches at Christmas, 
 
 95 
 Darlington, Bulmer stone at, 18 
 Days, rhymes on the, 102 
 Death customs and beliefs, 59 
 Death-hearses, a class of spirits, 78 
 Dead, excessive grief for, 58 
 
 touching the, 59 
 
 Denton Hall, haunted by an apparition 
 
 in silk, 177 
 Denwick, games at, 361 
 Derwentwater family, 193-195 
 Devonshire fairies, saying of, 85 
 Devil, invocation of the, 275-278 
 
 selling oneself to, 67-68 
 
 passing bell, 93 
 
 Devil's cauldron, in Bute, 2S6 
 Devil's stone, 216-217 
 
 Dewsbury, Yorkshire, bell ringing at, 
 
 92 
 Dick-a-Tuesdays, a class of spirits, 77 
 Dill, a protection from witchcraft, 81 
 Dirt not swept out of the house on 
 
 New Year's Day, 340 
 Disease known as farye, 140-141 
 
 transference of, to animal, 322 
 
 Dish, breaking of, prognostication 
 
 trom, 272 
 Ditchant, sacred well at, 167 
 Divinations, 278-288 
 Dobbies, a class of spirits, 77 
 Docken, or nettle rhymes, 71 
 Dodd in place names, 375 
 Dog, appearance of a spirit as, 253 
 
 Dog, bnrial of, with owner, 21 
 
 Dogs howling a death omen, 65, 270, 
 
 271 
 Domestic utensils, see " Battling 
 
 Stones," "Candle-bark," "Chests," 
 
 " Quern. " " Sleek Stones, " 
 
 " Trenchers " 
 Domestic sprite, 172 
 Dopple-gangers, a class of spirits, 79 
 Dorsetshire, divination in, 279 
 Doubles, a class of spirits, 79 
 Drake-stone, Harbottle, 256-257 
 Draw bucket of water, game, 36 
 Dreams, as warning of death, 269 
 Dress, male and female, interchange 
 
 of, 3 
 
 witches', 320 
 
 Driffield, Roundhead rhyme at. 76 
 Drophandkerchief, game of, 351 
 Dropsy, amber-bead worn as cure 
 
 for, 83 
 Druids lapful, a stone at Yevering, 
 
 216 
 Dadmen, a class of spirits, 79 
 Dunnies, a class of spirits, 79, 157 
 Dunstanborongh Castle legend, 123 
 Durham customs, 2, 3, 4, 7,,,14,'i21, 
 
 43 
 
 divination practices in, 289, 
 
 291 
 
 -witchcraft in, 332, 333 
 
 - see " Gainford," " Gates- 
 
 head " 
 Dnst caused by fairies, 88 
 Dwafs, a class of spirits, 78 
 Dykes, 34 
 
 Earache, cure of, 294 
 East, bowing to the, 41 
 Easter Sunday superstition, 24 
 Eating, divination after, 280 
 Edeedsbrig, black devil of, 277 
 Edlingham, witchcraft at, 334 
 Eelin's hole, a fairy cavern, 145, 219 
 Fgg presentation to child on first visit, 
 
 48 
 Egg-setting formulae, 274 
 Eggs, eating of, to excess, 215 
 Eggshells, witches riding on, 299, 301 
 Eglingham, witchcraft at, 324 
 
 petting stone at, 213 
 
 Elder tree, nsed to prevent witchcraft, 
 
 325 
 Elf, place names derived from, 78 
 Elf-arrow head boiled to cure madness, 
 
 224 
 
INDEX. 
 
 387 
 
 Elf hills, 143 
 
 Elf shot*, 30, 112, 113 
 
 Elf-fireB, a class of spirits, 78 
 
 Elf lucks, 30 
 
 Klsdon feast, 356 
 
 Elves, a class of spirits, 78 
 
 Elwin, river, abode of fairies, 144 
 
 Eston Knab, local rhyme, 14 
 
 Ethel's (Kirjg) chair, a stone, 130 
 
 Evil eye, 274 
 
 Eye twitching, sign of life, 275 
 
 Eye well, near Longwitton, 156 
 
 Eyebrows, meeting, sign of witches, 
 
 325 
 Eyes, fairy ointment for the, 138 
 
 l'ace, rhymes connected with, 36 
 Fairies, 30, 79, 110-115 
 
 buried at Brinkburn, 134 
 
 cry of the, 84 
 
 cnps, 43 
 
 legends, 136-151 
 
 place names derived from, 79 
 
 Fairings, rhyming formula used ut, 9 
 Fairy, as a disease, 140-141 
 
 rhymes relating to, 81, 84, 85, 86 
 
 Family apparitions, 183-188 
 
 Family descent, traced to river god, 
 
 42 
 Family legends, 44, 85 
 Fantasms, a class of spirits, 77 
 Farmin (St.), well dedicated to, 33 
 Fates, a class of spirits, 79 
 Fauns, a class of spirits, 77 
 Fawn, a race of gipsies, 86 
 Fays, a class of spirits, 78 
 Feasts of dedication, 3-4 
 Feet first, persons born, 274 
 Fenton, witchcraft at, 325 
 Festivals at sacred wells, 155-157 
 Fetches, a class of spirits, 77 
 Fiends, a class of spirits, 78 
 Fig sue, a customary Good Friday 
 
 dish, 9 
 Finger nail superstition, 24 
 Finger superstitions, 24 
 Fingers, fairy, 30, 113 
 Fire, circle of, to prevent withcraft, 
 
 327 
 Fire, elf, 30, 113 
 Fire for cattle disease, 365-366 
 Fire, not put out on New Year's Day, 
 
 340 
 Fire superstitions at Christmas, 25 
 Fire-drakes, a class of spirits, 77 
 
 First-foot, 340; female unlncky, 24, 
 
 26 ; male lucky, 26 
 Fish and ring, Btory of, 44 
 Flackett, a flask or wood bottle, 303 
 Flax, fairy, 113 
 
 Flayboggarts, a class of spirits, 78 
 Flint implements attributed to the 
 
 fairies, 112, 113 
 Flodden, king's seat at, 130 
 Flowers, wells dressed with, 155 
 Folkmoots, 130, 131 j inauguration 
 
 stones, 150 
 Food left for fairies, 143 
 Food, magical, produced by witches, 
 
 302 
 Food, eating of, power by, in witch- 
 craft, 301 
 Food peculiar to certain seasons, 28 
 Footstep, fairy, on stone, 160 
 Forefinger of right hand considered to 
 
 be venomous, 24 
 Fortification of towns on the borders, 
 
 239 
 Fortune telling, 298 
 Fox, rhymes on the, 107 
 Foxglove, a fairy flower, 30, 113, 149 
 Freiths, a class of spirits, 78 
 Friar's lanthorn, a class of spirits, 78 
 Friday, unluck of, 343-344 
 
 witches' attitude to, 84 
 
 Frog, living, used to cure thrush, 293 
 Fruit tree not to be topped with a 
 
 saw, 29 
 Fugoe Hole, Land's End, 220 
 Funeral cakes, 54 
 
 eustoms, 58 
 
 feast, 39 
 
 hymn, 52 
 
 procession, prognostication 
 
 from first person met by, 49 ; honour 
 
 to, by passers by, :19 
 see " Burial " 
 
 Furrows of the plough twisted to avoid 
 the fairies, 146 
 
 Gabriel- hounds, a class of spirits, 79 
 Gainford, co. Durham, ridiDg the stang 
 
 at, 4-5 
 Gall bladder, superstitious belief con- 
 cerning, 72 
 Gallybeggars, a class of spirits, 78 
 Gallytrots, a class of spirits, 78 
 Games, children's, 36, 52, 351 
 
 with the ribwort plantain, 368 
 
 Gant, a village fair or wake, 3 
 
388 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Garlands, virgin, 33 
 
 rush bearer's, 33 
 
 Garter, divination by, 279-280 
 
 , used in charms, 291-295 
 
 red, charm for rheumatics, 48 
 
 Gateshead, pit villages near, riding 
 the stang at, 5-6 
 
 Gaudy Bay at, 6 
 
 witchcraft at, 338 
 
 Gaudy day, 6 
 
 Gelt, local rhyme, 14 
 Gholes, a class of spirits. 78 
 Ghosts, 165 
 
 laying of, by ribwort, 373 
 
 Giant traditions, 29, 78 
 Gilsland wells, 156 
 Gipsies at Wooler, 349 
 
 sayings connected with, 84, 86 
 
 Gipsy story, 168-169 
 
 Glanton, sacred well at, 352 
 
 Glove, to bite the, a token of contempt, 
 
 66 
 Glowworm, fairy lanthorn, 88, 114 
 Gnomes, a class of spirits, 79 
 Goats, good luck from, 75 
 Goblin, a class of spirits, 78 
 
 place names derived from, 78 " 
 
 Gold objects discovered, 209 
 Good Friday customs, 9 
 
 rhyme, 18 
 
 superstitions, 24 
 
 Goodman, the head of the house, 31 
 Gordon (Jean), death of, 168-169 
 Grace card, name for " six of hearts," 
 
 38 
 Grants, a class of spirits, 79 
 Gray-man of Bellister, 183-187 
 Greata, river, snperstitious practice at, 
 
 29 
 Greyhound, witch in shape of, 299 
 Gringes, a class of spirits, 78 
 Groats, fairy, 111, 114 
 Guests, a class of spirits, 78 
 Guisarding rhymes, 214, 347-348 
 Guisers, harvest, 3 
 Gun- firing superstition, 72 
 Gunnarton, money hill near, 203 
 Guy Fawkes rhymes, 15-16 
 Guy of Warwick, dragon slain bv, 
 
 156 
 
 Hagberry, the bird cherry, 329 
 Hagmena, rhyme, 95 
 Hags, a class of spirits, 77 
 place name derived from, 77 
 
 Hair cut from the neck for charms, 
 
 294, 297 
 Hair not cut on Friday, 343 
 
 matted, fairy locks, 112, 113 
 
 used by witches, 314 
 
 colour of, superstition as to, 24 
 
 Halliwell's Nursery Rhymes, 27 
 Hallowe'en, witches seen on, 82 
 Haltwhistle, stone near, 204 
 Hamilton, local rhymg, 14 
 Handsel Monday, 90 
 
 Hanging stone, tradition, 120 
 
 Harbottle, Northumberland, drake- 
 stone, 256-257 
 
 Harden Burn river, abode of fairies, 
 144 
 
 Hare, apparition in the form of, 164 
 
 witch in shape of, 299, 301, 328 
 
 proverbs on the, 108 
 
 Harehope Hill, fairies on, 143 
 Harry, Old, name for the devil, 276 
 Hartburn, witchcraft at, 337 
 Harvest home, 2-3 
 
 Hawking, rhymes and proverbs on, 
 
 107-108 
 Hay harvest rhyme, 20 
 Hazelrigg Dunnie, a sprite, 157-159, 
 
 162-163 
 Hazelrigg Dunny, a ghost story, 79 
 Heart stuck with pins, core for witch- 
 craft, 68, 327 
 Heather chieftain, 357 
 Heckley Fence, proverbial saying con- 
 nected with, 65 
 Hedgehogs, urchins, 57 
 Hedley Kow, a ghost story, 78 
 Hellhounds, a class of spirits, 79 
 Hellwains, a class of spirits, 77 
 Hempseed divination, 278 
 Hen, white, apparition of, 193 
 Herb-pudding, eating of, in Passion 
 
 Week, 32 
 Herrit's dyke, 34 
 Hexham, plague stone at, 212 
 Heytherrie Hole, 219 
 Hide, used for burying treasure, 255 
 
 burial in, 256 
 
 Hills, fairy, 30, 112 
 Hob-and-lanthorns, a class of spirits, 
 
 78 
 Hob Collingwood, name for "four of 
 
 hearts," 38 
 Hobbits, a class of spirits, 79 
 Hobby-Ian thorns, a class of spirits, 77 
 Hobcross, place names derived from, 78 
 Hobgoblins, a class of spirits, 77, 79 
 Hobhoulards, a class of spirits, 77 
 
INDEX. 
 
 389 
 
 Hob's Flow, 356 
 
 Hob-thrushes, a class of spirits, 78 
 
 Hob-thrust, place name derived from, 
 77 
 
 a class of spirits, 77 
 
 Hob Thrush's Mill, 355 
 
 Hodge-pochers, a class of spirits, 78 
 
 Hogmanay, rhyme, 95, 96 
 
 Holed stones, 265-266 
 
 • charm to prevent witch- 
 craft, 325 
 
 Holly, he and she, divination by, 
 284-286 
 
 Holy water used in charming, 293 
 
 Holy stones, 41, 43 
 
 Hoodhill, local rhyme, 1 4 
 
 Hoppings, village, 3 
 
 Horuie holes, game of, 351 
 
 Horns, fairy, 114 
 
 Horse, offering of, to the church at 
 death of owner. 21 
 
 hair from the tail becomes an 
 
 eel. 29 
 
 holy stone used to protect, 43 
 
 witch in shape of, 301 
 
 Sower of seeing spirits by, 171 
 oes, 62, 212 
 
 cure of distemper by burning, 
 
 338 
 Hounam church bell, falling of, 134 
 Houudwood, Berwickshire, a family 
 
 apparition at, 177 
 House charm, 41 
 Housestoads, fairies at, 144 
 Hud, the city of, Aran Islands, 210 
 Hudskins, a class of spirits, 7n 
 Hume-byres penny, charm, 222 
 Huntor and hounds, legend, 121-124, 
 
 268-261 
 Hurlo-stane, near Chillingham, 143, 
 
 217 
 Hutton Church, treasure hidden at, 1 35 
 Hy Brasail, Irish belief concerning, 
 
 210 
 Hydrophobia, remedies for, 220 
 
 Ice before Christmas, 90 
 
 " If I had gold in goupins," rhyme, 54 
 
 Ignis fatuus, 77, 113 
 
 "I'll away yhame," rhyme, ">.'{ 
 
 Imps, a class of spirits, 77, 78 
 
 Incubusses, a class of spirits, 77 
 
 Ireland, buried treasure in, 254 
 
 belief as to elf arrows, 224 
 
 Ireland, fairies, cry of the, 84 ; dust 
 caused by, 88 
 
 Irish, objections of adder to, 275 
 Irish Btone, a charm, 40 
 
 Jack-in-the-Wads, a class of spirits, 78 
 Jacobite toast, 359 
 Jarrow rhyme, 360 
 
 we'll at, 156 
 
 Javelins, fairy, 30, 113 
 Jedburgh Abbey, bells of, 133 
 Jemmy-burties, a class of spirits, 77 
 Jcsmond, sacred well at, 156 
 Jinny-burnt-tails, a class of spirits, 79 
 Journey, signs of unluck on starting, 
 
 338 
 Judges, meeting of, at Brampton, 
 
 Cumberland, 227 
 Jury, butchers objected to serve on, 66 
 
 Kail wedding, 356 
 
 Katie Ncevie's hoard, 255 
 
 Kelpies, a class of spirits, 77 
 
 Kelso Bridge, legend connected with, 
 
 201 
 Kemps, game of, 369 
 
 divination by, 371 
 
 Kendal, divination practices near, 283 
 
 Kening, half a bushel, 303 
 
 Kent customs, 20 
 
 Keppen Well, at Eglanton, 3.">2 
 
 Keppy ball, game of, 227, 286-288 
 
 Kerns, fairy, 144 
 
 rhymes, 349 
 
 Keswick, legend of the Giant Cor, 29 
 
 Kettles, fairy, 30, 113 
 
 Keyheugh, Northumberland, sacred 
 
 well at, 154 
 Keys, enchanted, 209-211 
 Kidnappers, a class of spirits, 78 
 Kidneys, fniry, 113 
 Kilcattan Bay, stone chair at, 131 
 King's dyke at Newcustlc-on-Tync, 34 
 King's evil cured by seventh son, 39, 
 
 274 
 King's seat, stones so called, 130 
 Kirk, fairy, 114 
 Kirkby Stephen, new years' gifts at, 
 
 33 
 
 Gny Fawkes at, 15 
 
 Kissing bnsh at Christmas, 67 
 Kit-a-can-sticks, a class of spirits, 77 
 Kittie-cat and buck-stick, game of, 
 
 351 
 Kitty-witches, a class of spirits, 77 
 
390 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Knipe-scar, local rhyme, 14 
 Knockers, a class of spirits, 78, 206-7 
 Knots, divination by, 279 
 
 elf, 30 
 
 Knowes, fairy, 143, 148, 150, 151 
 Kobolds, a class of spirits, 79 
 Korigans, a class of spirits, 79 
 Korrids, a class of spirits, 79 
 Kors, a class of spirits, 79 
 Kous, a class of spirits, 78 
 
 Lambton, sacred well at, 153 
 
 Lammer bead, an amber bead, 82 
 
 Lammermoors, king's seat in, 130 
 
 Lammikin, ballad of, 191 
 
 Lancashire customs, 14, 19, 20 
 
 Land measures, 34 
 
 Land's End, Fugoe hole, 220 
 
 Larrs, a class of spirits, 77 
 
 Leap Year rhymes, 101 
 
 Lease, life, to witch from the devil, 
 
 307 
 Left leg stocking, divination by, 281 
 Left shoe, divination by, 282 
 Leicestershire, see "Lutterworth " 
 Leprechauns, a class of spirits, 79 
 Leys, stone circle of, 209 
 Lian-hanshees, a class of spirits, 79 
 Lifting, custom of, Westmoreland, 31 
 Light from the house, not to be taken 
 
 on New Tear's Day, 24, 340 
 Lilburn, stone near, 201 
 Lindisfarne, petting stone at, 67 
 Lint, fairies, 149 
 Loaves, fairy, 30, 113 
 Lob's pound, allusion to, 87 
 Local rhymes, 14 
 "^Lockerley well, cure for hydrophobia, 
 
 221 
 London, legend connected with, Bridge, 
 
 201 
 
 customs, 40 
 
 field of the Forty Footsteps, 
 
 23 
 
 Long Benton, May kitten beliefs at, 55 
 Long Lonkin, ballad of, 191 
 Longwillon, sacred well at, 156 
 Looking glass, covering of, where 
 
 corpse lies, 73 
 divination by, on St. 
 
 Agnes' Eve, 283 
 
 ■ superstition, 48 
 
 Lord's Prayer backwards in witchcraft, 
 
 307 
 Lots, divination by, 292 
 
 Low Sunday, 119 
 Lubberkins, a class of spirits, 79 
 Luck of Eden Hall, 112 
 Luck, wishing of, 326 
 Lutterworth, superstition at, 46 
 Lyke wake, 58 
 
 MacCulloch (Sir Godfrey), tradition. 
 
 concerning, 61 
 Macleans of Loch Buy, ancestral 
 
 spirit, 187 
 Madcaps, a class of spirits, 78 
 Mad stones, 223, 224 
 Madron, sacred well at, 153 
 Magpie rhymes, 19, 20 
 Mahounds, a class of spirits, 79 
 Maiden assize and white gloves, 66 
 Maiden in place-names, 152 
 Mally, a Northumbrian song, 213 
 Mamsforth, Durham, buried treasure 
 
 in, 254 
 Mannikins, a class of spirits, 79 
 Manx fairy saying, 87 
 Marble playing, witches invoked in, 89 
 Mares, a class of spirits, 79 
 Markets, 29 
 
 Mark's (St.) eve, customs, 284 
 Marriage, omen from church clock 
 
 striking, 51 
 
 celebrations, 94 
 
 customs, 356 ; at Coniscliffe, 
 
 41 ; Durham, 43 
 
 dream of, a sign of death, 
 
 269 
 
 petting stone, 67, 213 
 rhymes, 93, 94, 102 
 shoe-throwing at, 33 
 
 Martinmas rhyme, 96 
 Maug Molach, an ancestral spirit, 188 
 Mawkins, a class of spirits, 79 
 May, eggs not set in, 275 
 
 dew, gathering of, 153 
 
 kittens, 55 
 
 roan tree gathered on the second 
 
 of, S3 
 Mayor, ceremonial, choosing of, 6 
 Meg-with-the-wads, a class of spirits, 
 
 78 
 Meg of Meldon, 244-256 
 Melch-dicks, a class of spirits, 77 
 Meldon, stone near, 200 
 Mell day. 2, 3 
 
 Men-in-the-oak, a class of spirits, 77 
 Men not allowed at women's funerals. 
 
 40 
 Mermaid's stone, 150 
 
INDEX. 
 
 391 
 
 Merrymen, 98 
 
 Middleton, British townlet near, 207 
 
 Midsummer bonfires, 342 
 
 cushions, 1 
 
 eve, customs, 284 
 
 Midwife, fairy, 139 
 
 Miffies, a class of spirits, 78 
 
 Milk, susceptibility of, to witchcraft, 
 
 326 
 Milking superstition, 83 
 Mills, fairy, 113 
 Mince pies, 91 
 
 Minchmuir, cheese well at, 152 
 Mistletoe used in the kissing bush at 
 
 Christmas, 67 
 Moaning, a warning of death, 267 
 Mockheggar, place-name derived from, 
 
 77 
 Mockbeggars, a class of spirits, 77 
 Money digging, 62 
 
 fairy, 30, 112 
 
 finding of, 85 
 
 Money Hill, near Gunnarton, 203 
 Montferraud, near Beverley, 26 
 Months and days, rhymes, 100-102 
 Moon changing on Saturday, 10 
 
 first, divination by, 281 
 
 man in the, 55 
 
 new, superstition, 24 
 
 Morden carrs, local rhyme, 14 
 Morinos, a class of spirits, 78 
 Morpeth, divination practices in, 289, 
 
 290 
 
 tradition concerning, 118 
 
 Mortham Dobby, a Teesdale goblin, 
 
 77 
 Morven church, bells of, 133 
 Mosstrooper's grave, 67 
 Mountain ash, a preservative against 
 
 silky, 171 
 Mouse, witch in shape of, 301 
 Mulgrave Castle, bone of giant cow at 
 
 29 
 Mummers' harvest, 3 
 Mnmpokers, a class of spirits, 77 
 Murcc- (St.), tradition of, 134 
 Murder causes earth to be barren, 23 
 
 corpse bleeding superstition, 
 
 49 
 
 Museum at Newcastle, folklore objects 
 
 in, 41 
 Mushrooms, fairy, 30, 113 
 Music, fairy, 148 
 Myddvai, physicians of, 294 
 
 Nacks, a class of spirits, 78 
 Naffcrton, legends of, 190 
 
 Nails, finger and toe, superstitions, 24 
 finger, to bite the, a sign of con- 
 tempt, 66 
 
 not pared on Friday, 337 
 
 Names, superstition concerning, 49 
 Nanny Powler, spirit of the Skerne, 78 
 Nathan's Keeve, Cornwall, buried 
 
 treasure in, 255 
 Neatherd, town's, at Wooler, 167 
 Neat's fire, for cattle disease, 365, 366 
 Ned Stokes, name for " four of spades," 
 
 38 
 Need fire, 60, 342 
 Nelly the knocker, spirit of a stone, 
 
 205 
 Neolithic implements found at Sten- 
 
 ton, 151 
 Nettle rhymes, 71 
 Newcastle, All Saints, burials at, 38 
 
 barring out at, 344, 346 
 
 charms at, 40 
 
 divination practices in, 290 
 
 kissing bush at, 67 
 
 King's Dyke at, 34 
 
 trials for witchcraft, 300-302, 
 
 322, 332, 336 
 Newminster, stone coffin at, 247 
 New Year's Day customs, 24, 31 
 
 gifts, 33 
 
 observances, 340, 341 
 
 rhymes and sayings, 9 
 
 tide, 98-99 
 
 Nickers, a class of spirits, 78 
 Nickies, a class of spirits, 78 
 Nicknevins, a class of spirits, 79 
 Nightbats, a class of spirits, 77 
 Nightmare, a class of spirits, 87 
 Nightmare, holystone used to prevent, 
 
 43, 325 
 Nips, fairy, 114 
 Nipsey springs, forecast of weather 
 
 from, 48 
 Nisses, a class of spirits. 80 
 Nixies, a class of spirits, 79 
 Norfolk, customs, 11 
 Northamptonshire, divinations in, 371 
 Northumberland, customs of, 3, 8, 20, 
 
 21,29,41,44.348,349 
 trials for witchcraft, 314, 
 
 327, 336 
 Nursery rhymes, 53, 69 
 Nursery song, 27-28 
 Nutty-cock, an old term of endearment, 
 
 53 
 
 Oak Day, 54 
 
 Ointment, fairy, for the eyes, 138 
 
392 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Old, prefix to place-names, 44 
 
 Old maids, 45 
 
 Old shocks, a class of spirits, 78 
 
 Ouphs, a class of spirits. 78 
 
 Ouse, river, tradition concerning, 51 
 
 Oven, fairies', 149 
 
 Oxenham family, ancestral spirit, 188 
 
 Padfooits, a class of spirits, 78 
 
 Palm Sunday customs, 57 
 
 Pancakes, 17, 19, 31 
 
 Pans, a class of spirits, 77 
 
 Paralysis, fairy struck, 87, 115 
 
 Pasche eggs, 95 
 
 Passion week customs, 32 
 
 Patches, a class of spirits, 78 
 
 Patience Dock, a herb, 32 
 
 Pearlin' Jean, an apparition, 178 
 
 Pease, divination by, 282 
 
 Pech pipes, 111 
 
 Pedlar murder, tradition, 196 
 
 Peg Powler, goddess of the Tees, 42, 78 
 
 Pele towers, 238, 243 
 
 Pelton Brag, a sprite, 161 
 
 Penny, Hume-byres, charm, 223 
 
 Peony, cure for falling sickness, 141 
 
 Petticoats, superstition concerning, 48 
 
 Petting stone at Lindisfame, 67 ; at 
 
 Eglingham Church, 213 
 Phooka, blackberries spoiled by, 88 
 Phynodderee, a Manx fairy, 87 
 Pickering, origin of the town, 44 
 Picktree Brag, a spirit, 159 
 Picktree Bragg, a ghost story, 78 
 Picktree, place-names derived from, 78 
 Pictrees, a class of spirits, 78 
 Piddle Hinton, Dorsetshire, poors' gift 
 
 at, 91 
 Piercebridge, battling stones at, 69 
 Pig, unlucky to kill, at moon waning, 
 
 365 
 Piggiviggan, a severe fall, 87 
 Pigmies, a class of spirits, 79 
 Pins, divination by, 283 
 
 offerings of, at sacred wells, 153, 
 
 154, 156 
 
 vomited by bewitched people, 
 
 322, 323 
 
 Piper, legends concerning, 220 
 
 of Hexham, 363 
 
 Pipes, fairy, 30, 111 
 Piper's Coe o' Cowend, 220 
 Pixies, a class of spirits, 78 
 Pixyled, 87 
 
 Place-names connected with fairies, 
 142, 143 
 
 Place-names from spirits, 77-80 
 Plagne stones, 212 
 
 Playing-cards, popular names for, 38 
 Ploughing, fairy at the, 137 
 
 fairies objecting to, 146 
 
 incantatioD, 88 
 
 Pools, fairy, 114 
 
 " Poor Johnny's deed " rhyme, 52 
 Portunes, a class of spirits, 79 
 Prayer, secret, said over corpse, 73 
 
 witches', 86 
 
 Pregnancy beliefs, 30 
 Priest's hole, 194 
 Proudlock's poems, 59 
 Proverbs, 57, 65, 75, 363-365 
 Puck, Irish allusion to, 87 
 Puck fists, 30, 113 
 Puck needle, 114 
 Puckles, a class of spirits, 79 
 Pucks, a class of spirits, 78 
 Puddening infants, 25 
 Pudding Gyve, 220 
 
 Queen Bess, name for " queen of clubs," 
 
 38 
 Quern mill, 32 
 
 Rabbit, white, apparition of, 193 
 
 Radiant boy apparition, 163 
 
 Rags offered at wells, 156 
 
 Rain rhymes and sayings, 22, 47 
 
 Rainbow custom, 58 
 
 Rawheads, a class of spirits, 78 
 
 Ray, a cloth woven parti-coloured, 98 
 
 Red-men, a class of spirits, 79 
 
 Red thread used as charm to keep away 
 
 witches, 83, 329 
 Redcaps, a class of spirits, 78 
 Rhyme, burial, 37 
 
 nursery, 36, 46 
 
 Rhyming charms, 70, 71 
 
 formula? used in customs. 2, 5, 
 
 8, 9, 15, 20 
 
 Rihwort plantain, 367-381 
 Richmond, 61, 62 
 
 bell-horses used at, 74 
 
 Riddle, divination by, 280, 288-291 
 Riggin, the backbone, 65 
 Rimside black sow, a stone, 360 
 Ring found in fish, story of, 44 
 
 wedding, divination by, 281 
 
 Ringing in Christmas, 92, 93 
 Rings, fairy, 30, 112, 139 
 
 River gods, 42; descent of family 
 from, 42 
 
INDEX. 
 
 393 
 
 River spirits, 78 
 
 superstitions, 29, 4G 
 
 traditions, 51 
 
 Hi vers, abode of fame-, 144 
 Riving-pikc, local rhyme, 14 
 Road, fairies', at Oldcambus, 149 
 Koads attributed to Michael Seott, 
 
 117 
 Robin believed to cover dead bodies, 28 
 ltobin Goodfellows, a class of spirits, 
 
 77, K,-, 
 Robinets, a class of spirits, 7* 
 Rocks, names of, 157 
 Roman burials, 05 
 remains attributed to fairies, 
 
 144, 145 
 
 ■ wall built by Michnel Scott, 
 
 117; well-offerings on the, 157 
 
 Roscberry Topping, local rhyme, 14 
 
 " Rosemary green and lavender blue " 
 rhyme, 54 
 
 Roshn, tradition concerning, 124 
 
 Rothiemurcus family, ancestral spirit 
 of, 1*8 
 
 Rothley Mill, fairies of, 145 
 
 Roundhead rhyme, 76 
 
 Howan tree, a protection from witch- 
 craft, 30, 81-83, 328-330, 335 
 
 Rowhope wedding, 35(5 
 
 Running and leaping ihymes, G9 
 
 Rush-bearer's garland, 33 
 
 Sackworth, local rhyme, 14 
 
 Sacrifice, row, to cure witchcraft, 327 
 
 Saddles, fairy, 30, 113 
 
 St. Boswell, sacred well at, 157 
 
 St. Nicholas' day cuslom, 6-8 
 
 St. Stephen's day, 26 
 
 Saints, as guardians of wells, 155 
 
 Salt placed on dead bodies, 73 
 
 as charm against witchcraft, 335 
 
 as preventive of evil, 365 
 
 Rand, ropes of, devil set t'i spin, 116 
 Saturday, Christmas day falling on, 99 
 
 moon changing on, 10 
 
 Satyrs, a class of spirits, 77 
 ^car-bugs, a class of spirits, 7S 
 Scarecrows, a class of spirits, 77 
 Schoolboy rhymes, 17, 54 
 H'hool customs, 7 
 
 Scotland, banks of the Tyne called, 
 361 
 
 ■ marble playing, 89 
 
 ■ regalia of, 1 1 1 
 
 <™tt (Michael), the wizard, 116-119 
 Scrags, a class of spirits, 77 
 
 Scrats, a class of spirits, 79 
 
 Scruffell, lecal rhyme, 14 
 
 Sea, superstition connected with, 72 
 
 Selby (Margaret), legend of, 244-256 
 
 Seventh son, 39, 273 
 
 Sewingshields, King Arthur at, 125- 
 
 129 
 Sex rhymes, 70 
 
 taboos, 40 
 
 Shadows, a class of spirits, 79 
 Shag foals, a class of spirits, 78 
 Sheaf of corn, appearance of, a warning 
 
 of death, 267 
 Sheep's bone used as amulet, 58 
 Sheffield Christmas rhyme, 37 
 
 pancake custom at, 31 
 
 Shellycoats, a class of spirits, 77 
 Shoe take,, as pledge or payment, 31 
 
 throwing at marriages, 33 
 
 Shoes, divination by the, 278, 279 
 Shrove-tide rhyme, 17, 19 
 
 Tuesday custom, 31, 32 
 
 Silence, divination performed in, 2£ 5 
 
 necessary for discovery of 
 
 treasure, 248, 249 
 
 Silk, a spirit raiment, 176-179 
 
 nse of, for dresses, 180-182 
 
 Silky, a sprite, 78, 169-174, 182 
 
 place-names derived from, 78 
 
 Silver stones, 212 
 
 Sirens, a class of spirits, 77 
 Sixpence, crooked, worn as amulet, 
 
 72 
 Skeely man, 326 
 Skerne, river, spirit of, 78 
 Skiddaw, local rhyme, 14 
 Skull superstition, 19 
 Sleek or calendering stones. 74 
 Sleep-walking, cure for, 274 
 Slippers, fairy, 30 
 Snake stones, 43 
 
 Snapdragons, a class of spirits, 7s 
 Somersetshire customs, 4 
 Songs, 358, 359 
 
 Northumbrian, 213 
 
 Soul mass cake, 26 
 
 South-running water, cure for witch- 
 craft, 326 
 
 Sowerby, witchcraft at, 327 
 Spinning, powerover, by witchcraft, 308 
 Spirit, evil, expelled by suction, 293 
 Spirits, local names of, 77-80 
 
 of the dead, 58, 59 
 
 Spoorns, a class of spirits, 77 
 Sprats, u class of spirits, 78 
 Springs, forecast of weather from, 48 
 Sprites, a class of spirits, 79 
 
 'HI., II. 
 
 •J. I> 
 
394 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Spunks, a class of spirits, 78 
 
 Spurns, a class of spirits, 78 
 
 Stang, riding the, 4-6 
 
 Stanging, lifting custom, 31 
 
 Stealing, a warning of evil, 272 
 
 Stentin, near Dunbar, tumulus at, 151 
 
 Steven (St.), day, 95 
 
 Stewart Hall (R >thesay), curing stones 
 at, 225 
 
 Stirlingshire, witchcraft in, 326 
 
 Stocking put on wrong side out, prog- 
 nosticates death, 271 
 
 Stolen articles, used as charm, 48 
 
 Stone chairs as seats, 130 
 
 coffin, restored to its place by 
 
 means of apparition, 164 
 
 Stones, ascurefor hydrophobia, 221-223 
 bloody, 60 . 
 
 customs or superstitions con- 
 cerning, 18 
 
 fairies dancing round, 143 
 
 fairy, 30, 143-145 
 
 holed, charm to prevent witch- 
 craft, 325 
 
 holy, 43 
 
 inauguration, 150 
 
 ■ legends concerning, 129, 197- 
 
 211,216,217 
 
 thunder, 45 
 
 Storms, fairies and spirits connected 
 with, 176 
 
 caused by witches, 337 
 
 charms against, 295 
 
 Strath church, bell legend, 134 
 Straws, 337 
 
 Stye, cured by gold ring, 298 
 Subterraneous passages, belief in, 30, 60 
 Succubusses, a class of spirits, 79 
 Suicides, burial of, 63-64 
 Sunday, lucky to start on voyage, 343 
 Sunderland fitter, name for " kuave of 
 
 clubs," 38 
 Swaitb.es, a class of spirits, 78 
 Swallow, witch in shape of, 306, 311 
 Swarths, a class of spirits, 78 
 Swedish fairy legend, 135 
 Swift, river, superstition as to over- 
 flowing of, 46 
 Swinging witches, 302, 303 
 Sybils, a class of spirits, 7!) 
 Sylphs, a class of spirits, 7S 
 Sylvaus, a class of spirits, 79 
 
 Tailors, 51 
 
 Tamleuchar Cross, treasure hidden at, 
 
 135 
 Tansy pudding, 4 1 
 
 Tantarrabobs, a class of spirits, 78 
 Taps, three, warning of death, 267- 
 
 269 
 Tees, river, spirit of the, 42, 78 
 Teeth superstitions, 24, 75 
 
 burning of, 48 
 
 and toes, prognostication from, 48 
 
 Tempest family, legend connected with, 
 
 44 
 Thames, abode of a spirit, 42 
 Thirteen at table unlncky, 25 
 Thomas' (St 1 dav, 92, 93 
 Thomas the Rhymer. 119, 120 
 Thrashing, warning of misfortune 
 
 during, 267 
 Threeston, Burn, 207-209 
 Throngh-the-needle, &c, game of, 351 
 Th rummy, place-name derived from , 79 
 Thrummycaps, a class of spirits, 79 
 Thrush (disease), cure of, 293 
 Thumbs, doubling of, to prevent witch- 
 craft, i25 
 Thunderstone, 45 
 Thnrses, a class of spirits, 78 
 Tints, a class of spirits, 78 
 Toad, daughter turned into, by witch, 
 
 331 
 Toast, Northumbrian, 214 
 Todlowries, a class of spirits, 78 
 Toe-nail superstition, 24 
 Tompokcrs, a class of spirits, 78 
 Tom-thumbs, a class of spirits, 78 
 Tom-tumblers, a class of spirits, 77 
 Tooth, dream of, sign of death, 272 
 
 extracted, put into fire, 298, 299 
 
 Toothache, amber bead worn as cure 
 
 for, 83 
 
 charm, 9, 10 
 
 Topsham, family legend, 85 
 Towers, used for protection, 238 
 Treasure attributed to silky sprite, 173 
 hidden, 135, 200, 202, 203, 
 
 247-250, 254 
 Treasures, fairy, at Bamborough, 146 
 Tree (dreaming), at Bute, 286 
 Trees, stretching across streams, haunt 
 
 of sprites, 174 
 
 hawthorn, fairies dance near, 
 
 136 
 
 Trenchers, wooden, in servants' hall, 33 
 Tritons, a class of spirits, 77 
 Trolls, a class of spirits, 78 
 Trows, a class of spirits, 79 
 Tumuli, attributed to the fairies, 151 
 Turf placed on dead bodies, 73 
 
 charm for cattle's diseased foot, 
 
 50 
 
1NDKX. 
 
 295 
 
 Tutgote, a class of spirits, 78 
 Tweed, river, spirit of the, 42 
 Twinlaw, stone chair on, 130 
 Twins, boy and girl, 30 
 Tjnemouth, wizard's cave at, 123 
 
 Urchins, a class of spirits, 77 
 name for hedgehogs, 57 
 
 Vnlcr.tine rhymes, 348, 349 
 Veal pie, at funeral feast, 10 
 Vervain, a protection from witchcraft, 
 HI 
 
 Virgin garlands, 33 
 
 Wabby (Willy), ghost of, ICG 
 Waffs, a class of spirits, 7H 
 Weghom, a false man, 83 
 Waitlw, a class of spirits, 78 
 Wake at funerals, 58 
 Wansbeck river, tradition concerning, 
 UK 
 
 Wurk Castle, 61 
 
 sacred well at, 155, 341 
 
 Warlocks, a class of spirits, 77 
 Warnings to relatives of death or mis- 
 fortune, 266-273 
 
 Warts, cure for, by the seventh son, 274 
 Wassail bowl at Christmas, 8, 92 
 Water, south-running, as a curative, 
 140 
 
 person carrying, sign of ill- 
 luck, 338 
 
 placed beneath the bed on 
 
 which corpse lies, 73 
 Water falls, abode of fairies, 175 
 Water witch, 314 
 Watling Street, called Michael Scott's 
 
 Causeway, 117 
 Wear, river, tradition concerning, IIS 
 Weasel, white, apparition of, 193 
 Weather forecasts, 357, 300, 361 
 
 lore of New Year's day, 99 
 
 proverbs, 21-23 
 
 Weaving on a battling stone, 2 46 
 Wednesday, the fairies' holiday, 86, 1 1.1 
 Weise, used by milkmaids, 142 
 Well buried treasure id, 248, 249 
 
 — near Whittingham, white ladies 
 appear at, 167 
 
 rites at Alnwick, 40 
 
 Wells, fairy, 30, 112 
 
 sacred, 33, 151-1.17, 221, 341, 
 
 3.12 
 
 Welsh fairies, 81, 17.1 
 
 Westmoreland, customs of, 7, 8. 1 1, 14, 
 20, 31, 33, 38, 46, 47, .11, 91 
 
 Whalton. sacred fire at, 342 
 
 Whicken tre, charm for witchcraft, 329 
 
 Whirlpools, attributed to the fairies, 
 146 
 
 Wh.le animal, apparition of 193 
 
 ducks or drakes, used fur 
 
 charming, 293 
 
 ladies apparition. 166, 167 
 
 White women, a class of spirits, 79 
 Whittingham place-rhymes, 359 
 
 sacied well at, 107 
 
 vale. 234-214 
 
 Wife, rhymes on, 37 
 
 Will, rhyming, 16 
 
 Wills, customs noted from, 39 
 
 Willy Howe, near Bridlington, buried 
 
 treasure in, 2.14 
 Wimbell pond, Sussex, buried treasure 
 
 in, 254 
 Wind, devil's connection with the, 30 
 
 rhymes and savings, 23, 29 
 
 Windielaw Cove, 220 
 Wirrikows, a class of spirits, 79 
 Wisemen, practices of, 295-297 
 Witch formulae, 12, 13 
 Witchcraft, cases of, 100, 161, 324-339 
 attributed to Margaret 
 
 Sclby, 245 
 
 beliefs, 30 
 
 trials for. 299-324 
 
 Witches, charms to keep away, 83 
 
 invoked in marble playing, 
 
 89 
 
 of Auldearn, 2N7 
 ■ rhymes relating to, 81-84, 
 
 Witches' Cairn, 334 
 
 Wooden dishes, witches riding on, 
 
 299, 301 
 Wuoler, gipsies at, 349 
 
 guisarding tit , 21.1 
 
 sacred well at, 151 
 
 stone chair at, 130 
 
 superstitions, 287,288, 293,298 
 
 ivitehciaft at, 325, 337 
 
 Woman cause of death to hero, IIS 
 Women, not allowed at men's funerals, 
 
 40 
 Word charms, 29.1 
 Worm well at Lambton, 1.13 
 Wraith, as wanting of death, 208. 270, 
 
 272 
 Wraithes, a class of spirits, 78 
 Written charms, lo, 1 1 
 Wycliffe (John), superstition connected 
 
 with bones of, 40 
 
396 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Yeavering Bell, ancient remains near, 
 
 208 
 Yethhounds, a class of spirits, 78 
 Yetholm, the fairies at, 147 
 Yevering, stone legend at, 216 
 Yew trees, planting of, 46 
 York, divination practices in, 289 
 kissing bush at, 67 
 
 Yorkshire customs, 2, 7, 11, 14, 25, 26, 
 29, 33, 40, 44, 4S, 91 
 
 trials for witchcraft, 315 
 
 Yowe, a female sheep, 5 
 
 Yule cake, 25 
 
 candle, 25, 26 
 
 cheese, 25 
 
 day, 90 
 
 log, 25, 26, 90, 91 
 
 PBtNTliD DY NICHOLS AND SONS, 25, PARLIAMENT STREET, S.W. 
 
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